Skip to content Skip to navigation

All is not well in BTAD

Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) is facing problems of rampant extortion from businessmen, farmers, employees and general people and kidnapping of businessmen. The business community like Hindi and Bengali speaking are largely targeted by some illusive extremist elements whose real objective is to make money for them and create terror in the area. The premier students’ organization of Bodoland, All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) through a memorandum,  has urged the Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde to take action against ongoing acts of kidnapping, extortion and illegal taxations in the area due to failure of law and order.

The workers and farmers belonging to Bodos and Gorkhas are levied heavy monthly taxes to the tune of 3 to 4 percent of their earnings. The ABSU has alleged that the local administration is unable to tackle the situation due to some nexus between the extremists and the local police. The general public is scared of their link which is causing distrust among various communities and heading for undesired conflict among them. The memorandum further adds that the residents of Indo-Bhutan border areas have alleged that the extremists carry census over the earning sources of family and fix the amount to be paid to them as ‘tax’. A recent report from villagers has revealed that the taxes are fixed against number betelnut trees, bamboos, household, animals, chicken, goats etc. This situation has brought frustration in the lives of the people irrespective of caste and fuelling the communal hatred and distrust. There are reports that some petty businessmen have been brutally killed for not paying the illegal taxes levied by the extremists.

In certain parts of Kokrajhar and Chirang districts a few Gorkha villagers were threatened to face dire consequences in case of their failure to meet the extremists’ demand. There are reports that some Bodo villagers have also been threatened of dire consequences in case they fail to meet their demands. The memorandum was submitted by the ABSU President Pramod Boro, General Secretary, P Narzary and Adviser, Rwa Gwra Narzary, on September 5, 2013 to the Minister for taking suitable action in order to get the peace return in the areas. Meanwhile, in view of the ongoing Tripartite talks on Bodoland issue, the ABSU has suspended its agitation on highway and railway blockade, bandh etc. However, the organization has resolved to continue other democratic, non-violent peaceful programmes for the cause in the days to come.

In a separate memorandum to Union minister for Tribal Affairs V Kishor Chandra Deo the ABSU has urged to take action for implementation of the Scheduled Tribe and Traditional Forest Dwellers Act 2006, especially in Sonitpur district of Assam. According to the law any tribal, who are the resident of forest area on or before the commencement of the Act have the right to have lands and everything related to their basic, civil and human rights. But unfortunately after the elapse of complete six years of enactment of said law also Bodo and number of tribal tribes are denied from the land rights and consequent upon that they are deprived from Panchayati Raj system. Due to this condition the tribal living there can not apply for bank loans for any purpose because they lack and proper land documents as required.

Comments

Vikram Beriya's picture

please Say "Alll is weal" to get relief

Pages

Add new comment

Random Stories

Three leopard cubs killed in Jorhat

20 Aug 2007 - 12:45pm | pbaruah
Guwahati: For the Mahbandha Samaguri Tea Estate, tigers are not burning bright as some workers in the garden killed three leopard cubs on Monday much to the disappointment of those who love nature....

AICC revamp before cabinet rejig!

13 Dec 2014 - 7:18pm | AT Political Bureau
The appointment of Anjan Dutta as APCC president is believed to have paved the way for chief minister Tarun Gogoi to reshuffle his cabinet at an earlier date.Sources told Assam Times that Gogoi was...

Tuki seeks Centre’s intervention

31 Dec 2011 - 1:51pm | editor
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has sought Centre’s intervention to resolve the big dam agitation simmering in Lakhimpur and Dhemaji. The Chief minister on Friday...

Bhupen Bora files nomination

19 Mar 2014 - 4:20pm | AT News
Tezpur Congress candidate Bhupen Bora on Wednesday filed nomination for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls slated for April 7.Accompanied by senior party leaders, Bora field his nomination papers before...

Other Contents by Author

To bring discipline in a society either the citizens should be conscious themselves or the law enforcing authorities should be prepared to make them disciplined. It may be a hard step for the time being, but in the long run result would be beneficial to both the human beings and the society. In present days we find lack of sense among the people to go through the legal means of life and improving the deteriorating standard of the society. Violation of laws has become a fashion now-a-days.Smoking in the public places has been banned since Gandhi Jayanti, on October 2 last. This is not the first time that it is prohibited by law, but the law enforcing authorities lacked will power to...
Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has been totally failure in providing basic amenities to the citizens of the city. Despite getting sufficient funds from both the Central and state governments, it is not in position to meet the requirements of tax payers, small traders and other business houses, which are the major source of revenue to its coffer. An appeal from a citizen for providing basic amenities is turned down by the authorities on the ground that the GMC has no fund for the same. Instead of providing amenities and developing the sources to benefit the tax payers, GMC proposes to hike the rate of taxes and levies from time to time, on those who already bear the brunt of existing...
At last the Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi has realized that the situation in the state is not as he had dreamed so long. The opposition parties and various Non-governmental organizations had 'cried out' on explosive situation in the state frequently and tried to awake the administration for doing something to protect the lives and properties of the people, which passed through deaf ears and failed to give result. In fact the state has not enough security personnel which could be effective to protect the people from such incidents, but this was not realized by the government.Earlier, on the complaints of the Human Rights Commission, regarding violation of human rights by Army and...
It was Thursday the 30th October 2008, when Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) was organizing a ‘Gandhi March’ from the party headquarters at Rajiv Bhawan to Mangaldoi, the headquarters of Darrang district. The march started at 9 a.m. and proceeded by road for propagating the message of ‘peace and non-violence’, which is central to Gandhian philosophyThe citizens’ life was normal till then and the people came out of their houses for their work places unaware of any untoward incident likely to happen without notice. The weather was pleasant and office goers were busy rushing for their work. It was a busy day for courts, schools and colleges, markets and...
It is more than twenty-three years now, the Assam Accord was signed between the Government of Assam and the movement leaders, who propelled an agitation for long six years demanding detection and deportation of illegal migrants from the state. The signing of Accord could not have been possible without involvement of the Union government as the movement leaders had lost confidence on the intention of the state government, which was continuing on the strength of such 'vote banks' of the migrants. The erstwhile, Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi took initiative to bring peace in the state as the people were fade up with such a long agitation. It was an Independence Day gift for the people of Assam...
An incident of recent communal violence in Udalguri district has bred a number of questions to argue between the administration and opposition parties as well as media. The issue of Pakistani flag hoisting in Mohanpur at Jargaon playing ground on October 4 last has raised a number of questions about the incident. First of all the chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, going through the media reports flatly dismissed the report of hoisting Pakistani flag. Following the publication of photographs in the newspapers and video clippings shown by the electronic media, the government spokesperson and health minister, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma tried to defend the administration by over ruling the claims of...
The last two decades have seen a mushroom growth of the Fourth Estate in the northeastern region in general and Assam in particular. There is no doubt that due to this haphazard growth the demand for the media persons has increased, but their functioning in general, has fallen short of the set journalistic norms. With information technology witnessing a fast pace development, the media houses have not been able to get competent and trained workforce to cope with the increasing demands of this ever expanding and fast changing sector. The vacuum created by such situations has given birth to 'neo-journalism'. This is just a 'stopgap' arrangement for the unemployed educated youths.The majority...
The International Day of Non-violence and the holy Id-ul-fitre festival, both observed simultaneously on October, 2, 2008 and perceptive to communal harmony did not prove its worth so far the situation in a part of Assam is concerned. It was a day of violence in the district of Udalguri under the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), which spread to Darrang district and other areas around it as wildfire which led more than fifty innocent people including children and women killed and hundreds others injured. When Udalguri was burning, the state government was sleeping. Its slumber came to an end when a number of organizations flayed for its role at this critical juncture of the situation.A...
It's tragedy with our politicians who try to turn their failures on the others, especially before the elections. Mud slinging is very common to divert the attention of the electorate. The recent visit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani to the states of Assam and Meghalaya has brought excitement for Assam chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, who has tried to put blame of failures to check illegal migrants influx on the six years rule of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which ruled at the Centre from March 1998 to May 2004. Since the BJP and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) are coming closer in view of the ensuing Lok Sabha elections early next year, the chief minister...
With the joining main stream of the nation by more than three hundred ULFBV militants at the end of September last, the situation on the borders of Assam and Mizoram is likely to be peaceful. The efforts of the Hailakandi district administration and other agencies have done a commendable job to bring the militants on the right path. The situation on the inter-state borders of the southern Assam and Tripura's northern part with Mizoram was explosive for a long time after the Reangs tribal began their struggle for identity and existence, when they were driven out of Mizoram by the activists of Mizo Students Association (MSA) and Mizo Zirai Pawl (MZP). This led the Reangs to shift their...