LAKHIMPUR: The Anusuchita Jati Yuba Chatra Santha (AAJYCS) has demanded of the Government of Assam to allot land to the landless flood-erosion victims of the State and rehabilitate them at the earliest. The organization has also demanded grant of land rights to the Scheduled Caste (SC) people, terming them to be the sons of soil. In support of these demands, the activists of the organization took to the street in Lakhimpur on Monday with a massive protest programme.

In this connection, they staged 'dharna' in North Lakhimpur town in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office with the participation of hundreds of landless flood-erosion victims of the district.

Leading the protest programme, AAJYCS central committee president Nripen Das and secretary Nityananda Das said, "Most of the SC community people living on the bank of various rivers and in forest areas of Assam have been unable to sustain land right. Despite being sons of the soil, the majority of them are still landless. They have successively lost their residential areas in flood and erosion. They are currently living in deplorable conditions on the embankments or any other highland year after year. They have been managing their families through fishing as well as farming on the bank of the rivers for long time. They have even been unable to get the piece of land where they are residing allotted in their name from the Government due to various problems. At present, the Forest Department under the State Government has included such residential areas under the Reserved Forest areas without conducting any scientific and spot survey. It has added an insult to the injuries of the flood and erosion victims."

In support of the statement, the organization has cited several locations in the Lakhimpur district where such victims have been living without sustaining land rights or other Government benefits. In this connection, AAJYCS Lakhimpur district president Sushanta Das and secretary Dipak Basfore said, "The forest Department has ordered 44 such families living at the Maratpur Chengamari village under Telahi Development Block to desert their residential and farming areas at the earliest. We have demanded of the Government of Assam not to evict these poor people. We have condemned this initiative on the part of the Government."

Further, the central committee and district committee leaders of the organization issued a threat that the activists of the organization would initiate intensified protest if those landless people are evicted and placed in a miserable condition by the Government. The organization, while staging the protest programme, submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma through the Deputy Commissioner of Lakhimpur in support of the demands.