[1] FINAL REPORT Submitted By – Dr. Rohini Kr. Baruah Shri Anil Kr. Bhattacharyya Shri Ajoy Kr. Dutta Dr. Romesh Borpatragohain Members Committee for Protection of Land Rights of Indigenous People of Assam Dated : 30th December,2017 [2] [3] “When there was neither kingdom, nor king; there was neither governance, nor governor, the people protected themselves by dharma” -Mahabharata, XII.59.14 [4] Preface “Craft must have clothes, but truth loves to go naked”. -T. Fuller 1. The Committee is happy to present its Report on protection of land rights of the indigenous people of Assam, ten months after it was constituted with a mandate to suggest, if any changes or modifications in the existing land laws and the rules made there under were necessary. The Committee has no hesitation to say that the subject was vast, the time short and our knowledge, if anything, limited. It was, therefore, a daunting task which the Committee had accepted in deference to the mandate given by the new Government to serve a cause of so crucial importance as protecting the land rights of the indigenous people of Assam which in truth is linked to protecting the very identity of the colourful pristine people of the land we all live in. The committee hardly needs to emphasize that in traversing the long way it did, it had essentially encountered crowd of obstacles and challenges which the Committee had overcome with a rather missionary zeal. And yet, it cannot claim that what has been presented is free from flaws, inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Our consolation is that to err is human. 2. It has to be inexorably realized by all, particularly by those wielding the reins of Governance, that the pristine people of this beautiful land called Assam have reached a turning point in history at which they shockingly discover that they are faced with a crisis of their identity. This crisis stems from the perennial infiltration and organized encroachment of their lands by ceaseless swarms of a land-hungry people from across the Indo-Bangladesh Borders. This has now degenerated in to a perennial malady that needs to be attacked and treated at its root. Keeping this shocking truth in mind, the Committee has been absolutely forthright in saying what it should, has nourished no hesitation to call a spade a spade and explode the truth without fear or favour for, or bias against, any one. 3. Realizing that the task mandated to the Committee was vast and sensitive in nature, and needed a single-minded insight in order to sustain uniformity, coherence and continuity of [5] facts and perception, the Committee consciously decided that it would produce better result and make the task facile if the task of drafting the Report was exclusively entrusted to one of our members and eventually adopt it with such modifications as were considered necessary by the Committee. Accordingly, Dr. Rohini Kumar Baruah who had an administrative background and some insight in to land and revenue was entrusted with this task. Dr. Baruah accepted the suggestion and did his job under guidance of the Committee. The Draft Report having been completed eventually, the Committee adopted it with such additions, alterations and modifications as were considered necessary, to make it presentable to the Government. 4. In completing this stupendous task, while the continuous absence of the Member Secretary had left the Committee in the lurch, there were several serving and retired government officers with proficiency on the subject who had extended their un-reserved co-operation and suggestions. The Committee expresses its thanks and heart-felt gratitude to them, particularly to Sri Ashok Kumar Barman, ACS, Deputy Commissioner, Darrang and Sri Mohan Malakar, IFS (Retd.), Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wild Life) and Former Chief Information Commissioner, Assam. The Committee also hereby expresses its happiness that the officer and staff who formed its indispensable part had extended their ungrudging help and co-operation. We have no hesitation to name Sri Dhiraj Saud, ACS, Deputy Secretary of the Revenue Department, Sri Gautam Das, Sri Bhaskar Kalita, Sri Bhupen Kalita and Sri Nitai Roy who remained with us in all hours of need. While Shi Dhiraj Saud who in spite of pressing pre-occupation with his normal duties had made his services available in all hours of need and guided the Committee in important matters, the other staff members had served the Committee ungrudgingly and with a sense of devotion. But for their sincere help, the Committee would not have been able to complete the onerous task that it was entrusted with. 5. We are also thankful to the Government of Assam, particularly, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Sri Sarbananda Sonowal for reposing confidence in the Committee and giving it a chance to serve so important a cause of the indigenous people as protecting their land rights and virtually, their indigenous identity. [6] CONTENT Chapter-1 Introduction : The Background Scenario 1-16 Chapter-2 Describing the Committee’s tasks, strategy and constraints 17-29 Chapter-3 Land Policy of Assam 30-59 Chapter-4 Administration of char areas in Assam 60-71 Chapter-5 Protected belts and blocks of Assam 72-81 Chapter-6 Tea gardens of Assam and associated issues 82-98 Chapter-7 Protection and development of religious and charitable institutions 99-120 Chapter-8 Assam-an encroachers’ heaven 121-139 Chapter-9 Land Laws and the Revenue Administration of Assam 140-164 Chapter-10 Evolution and Reformation of the Revenue Department of Assam 165-173 Chapter-11 A hidden malady : In search of its root 174-178 Chapter-12 Highlights of the Recommendations 179-184 Annexure-I Annexure-II Annexure-III Annexure-IV Annexure-V Annexure-VI Annexure-VII Annexure-VIII [7] Chapter-1 “Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land?” - Scott Introduction : The Background Scenario 1. 1. Land-Foundation of Life and an Index of Identity: Land, the most treasured gift of nature serves the needs of the human race and all living creatures. During lifetime, land becomes the most critical and unique resources for sustaining life. Possession of land also provides one with cherished attributes of social status, respectability and identity. However, ungrateful homo-sapiens has ignored and failed to understand the implicit command of Mother Nature enshrined in her unwritten Gift Deed that to preserve her sanctity and purity, everyone living on her bountiful bosom must make its judicious use. Unfortunately the present human generations have successively failed to realize, much less acknowledge, that the earth actually belongs to the future generations and that we have only borrowed this munificent earth from the future generations. 1.2. And we have only one Mother Earth with her unalterably fixed surface. Inherent in this basic feature of Mother earth is a precarious imbalance in the equation between needs of the human race for living space and availability of the land surface – a phenomenon, diametrically opposite to each other-in that while the peripheries of the earth surface are un-alterably fixed, the size of the human race is ever- expanding and that too, in geometrical progression. This has inevitably given rise to cracking pressure on land and insatiable scramble for a living space, causing thereby tension at individual and national levels-a phenomenon which has led even to fight destructive wars between nations. 1.3. Characteristic Features of Assam’s Economy: Assam has a total surface area of 78,438 sq Km comprised in 33 Districts, 80 Sub-Divisions, 184 Revenue Circles and 26,395 villages. Her total population (Census Report, 2011) is 3,12,05576 of which 86 % comprise rural population, while the remaining 14% only comprise urban population. Thus, while Assam’s is basically an agrarian economy, its contribution to the State Domestic Product (SDP) is relatively insignificant with just 19.89% in 2011- 12. With absence of irrigational facilities, power connectivity, organized markets, easy bank loans, cold storage facilities, high incidence of flood, siltation and erosion, preponderance of uneconomic holdings and marginal farmers with consequent low productivity of land, the indigenous people of Assam are threatened in the not too distant a future, to be reduced to a class of unemployed, indolent people divorced from land and agriculture, their ancestral profession, unless adequate and appropriate mitigating steps are adopted urgently for uplifting agriculture to be a sustainable profession of the rural population by improving per capita agricultural income and thus protect their land rights. 1.3.1. Adverse Land –Population Ratio Syndrome and Fallouts: A crucial area of concern that needs to be realized by the planners and administrators of the state is that while the population of [8] Assam is growing at the rate of 17.07 per cent (2001-2011) and at disastrously higher rates in the Char and other immigrant dominated districts, as the tables depicted below will show, the per capita availability of land is fast receding. Assam's density of population has increased to 398 persons in 2011 from 340 persons in 2001 Census, that is to say, 58 persons more per Sq Km as compared to a decade Ago. With the growth of this population, extension of the urban areas and increased developmental activities in the non-agricultural sectors, the availability of land, particularly of the cultivable land, has become more critical. The number of landless agriculturists including agricultural workers is also increasing. And, when it is viewed from the angle of optimal use of the agricultural / cultivable land, the situation has become even more precarious. Another crucial area that warrants inescapable attention is the fact that out of the total geographical area of 78, 523.08 Sq Kms of the State, 15,222Sq kms forming about 19.38 per cent of the total area is included in the two autonomous districts of Karbi Anglong (the largest district of Assam) and Dima Hasao, where not only the population is sparse but also the use of land, characterized by the traditional Jhum cultivation, falls far below the optimal level.