Villagers protest Govt's move to acquire cropland

Guwahati, Apr 7 (UNI) While the unrest over acquisition of land for SEZ in Nandigram in West Bengal is yet to settle down, similar trouble is brewing up at a village on the outskirts of the Lokapriya Gopinath Bodoloi Airport here.

Hundreds of villagers of the Bongara village in Kamrup district in Asom today protested the state government's plan to acquire cultivable land for SEZ.

The state government plans to acquire around 300 bighas of farmland in Bongara village under Polashbari Revenue Circle so as to hand it over to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Protesting the government's bid, villagers, mostly from agrarian families, today organised a protest meeting at the village premises under the banner of 'Bongara Anchalik Bhumi Surakshya Samity'.

The Samity, which is spearheading the agitation, contends that 'while the government failed to bail the state out of the near drought-like situation last year, it was now out to deprive the farmers of their cultivable land.' The Samity has roped in a number of social and student organisations of south Kamrup, including the local unit of All Asom Students' Union (AASU), to pressurise the government to revoke its decision.

''Around 200 families, solely dependent on agriculture, will be directly affected in the wake of the government handing over the land to ITBP. There are government lands elsewhere. Why can'nt those tracts be given to the ITBP. We are planning to move the High Court unless the government revokes its plan,'' Kushaljyoti Malakar, an activist of the Samity, told UNI.

''The move has exposed the anti-farmer policy of the state government. The government should reconsider its decision,'' Mr Malakar said.

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