Debabrata Saikia Moves NHRC Against Proposed Eviction of Forest Villagers

GUWAHATI: Former leader of the opposition in Assam Assembly and Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia has moved the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to “take suo motu cognizance” of the alleged government move to evict residents from Laika-Dodhia villages of Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.

In a letter to the NHRC on Monday, Saikia stated: “I would like to draw the attention of the NHRC to two ongoing instances of gross injustice being meted out to many members of the Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class communities in Tinsukia and Nagaon (Mikir Bamuni Grant) districts of Assam by the state government, by way of violation of their land rights and basic human rights.

“The first instance involves around 1,300 ST and OBC families who were settled in the Laika-Dodhia area of the Dibru-Saikhowa Wildlife Sanctuary in Tinsukia district after the great earthquake of 1950. The government is now seeking to evict them, thereby going back on successive assurances over the last three years or so that these hapless people would be suitably rehabilitated.”

The people of Laika and Dodhia have been staging a protest since December 21 near the deputy commissioner’s office in Tinsukia.

“Three protesters, including a pregnant lady and her unborn child, have died because they were unable to bear the chill of winter in the makeshift camp (where the protesters have been putting up). Many other protesters are suffering from fever, nose-bleed, etc.,” Saikia stated.

Saikia claimed that a report from the Tinsukia DC holds testimony that the people have been living in the Laika-Dodhia area since the 1950s which prior to the area being notified as a wildlife sanctuary.

“Hence, their just demands ought to be heeded by the state government,” he stated in the letter to NHRC.