At the time when there has been uproar in the entire state regarding incessant killing of one horn Rhino and encroachment by suspected Bangladeshi illegal migrant that has started to threaten the very existence of Kaziranga National Park (KNP), the state government has finally admitted the involvement people living in the Sixth Addition Area of KNP in poaching and in this year a total of eighteen people belonging to Sixth Addition Area have been arrested for poaching. This shocking revelation has been made by the state government in an affidavit filed in Gauhati High Court on 19th November in connection with a PIL filed by Mrinal Kumar Saikia, chief adviser of Hindu Yuva Chatra Parishad and former president of BJP Golaghat unit, seeking clarification from both union and the state government regarding the encroachment by suspected Bangladeshi migrants in the Sixth Addition Area of Kaziranga National Park and its vicinity. After going through the PIL, a division bench comprising of Chief Justice A K Goel and Justice A Goswami directed both the Central and state government to clarify their stand on 18th October but failing to do so, the High Court has extended the date to 19th November to come up with their respective clarification without fail.
In their affidavit the state govt. has admitted of encroachment in the sixth addition area and referred them as settler instead of encroacher and said that once the settlement process, which is being going on, is over they will be removed from the area. On the other hand in a press meet attended by Mrinal Kumar Saikia chief adviser of Hindu Yuva Chatra Parishad, Balen Baishya, general secretary of HYCP, Brajen Kakoty, president of HYCP, Mohendra Konwar, founder president of HYCP and Ashok Borthakur founder president of BJP Golaghat unit, has accused the state government of misleading the people of Assam as well as the Judiciary. They said that the declaration of Sixth Addition Area comprising an area of 37,600 hectares was made way back in 1999 vide gazette notification no. FRS104/85/289. Since then thirteen years have passed and still the state government has not given any time frame for completing the settlement process.
Surprisingly at the time of creation of Sixth Addition Area there was no inhabitant in the area and the state government remains completely silence about the total number of settlers in the area and from where they have come and settled. HYCP further said that within a very short span of time they will start settling indigenous people in the Sixth Addition Area. If people from an alien nation can settle up in the Sixth Addition without any restriction then why can’t our indigenous people, said HYCP.
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