Assam: Cong demands Darrang DC, SP suspension

Assam CM announces 6 bighas to evicted landless families, orders judicial probe

After Assam Congress on Friday launched a frontal attack on the BJP government, accusing it of resorting to barbaric acts during an eviction drive in Darrang district, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that all landless people of Gorukhuti, where the eviction drive was going on, would get a total of six bighas of land.

And amid mounting public anger, the state government has announced a judicial inquiry into the circumstances leading to police firing at the protesters that left two dead.

As the firing incident in which two civilians were killed has surcharged the atmosphere of the state, Assam Congress on Friday demanded immediate suspension of Darrang deputy commissioner and SP Sushanta Biswa Sarma who happens to be the brother Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The chief minister told reporters, “An eviction drive was initiated with an agreed principle that landless will be provided 2 acres each as per land policy and representatives of those encroached villagers agreed to it. We expected no resistance but about 10,000 people gheraoed the police which had gone to assist the eviction drive of the administration.”

There is no official information yet on the photographer who was seen jumping on the chest of a dead protester while armed police officers stood by.

Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi referred to the relationship between the SP and chief minister and alleged that the duo did not want a peaceful resolution to the eviction drive. Mr Gogoi tweeted, “The chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s own brother is the superintendent

police of the Darrang district where the barbaric violence took place. It is clear that this CM-SP duo did not want a peaceful resolution to the eviction drive. The CM continues to bring shame to Assam.”

Earlier on Friday the Congress, led by its president Bhupen Bora, took out a protest rally at Mangaldoi against the firing and staged a demonstration in front of the office of the deputy commissioner of Darrang district. Assam Congress leaders Ripun Bora, Rakibul Hussain, Debabrata Saikia and others took part in the protest rally.

However, soon after Assam BJP justified police firing on encroachers and alleged that some Islamist outfits like Popular Front of India (PFI) might have been instigating protesters to attack Assam Police personnel during the eviction drive.

Claiming that it was a planned “attack” and calling it a planned conspiracy, the BJP said the casualty might have been much more but police was restrained. The BJP general secretary and local MP Dilip Saikia told reporters that other “political and apolitical organisations” could also be behind the incident and the facts will gradually unravel during investigation.

The AIUDF general secretary Aminul Islam demanded `50 lakh be paid to the kin of those who died and Rs 20 lakh to the injured. “We demand a CBI probe into the incident. The police could have used rubber bullets and water cannons to control the situation but people were shot at in the chest,” said Mr Islam.

“We demand six bigha cultivable land and one bigha residential plot to each of the evicted families,” he said. The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) alleged that Assam is on the verge of becoming a ‘policeruled state’ during the rule of the current tenure of the BJP-led government.

The Raijor Dal, headed by Akhil Gogoi, also termed the eviction in the Muslim inhabited areas of Garukhuti as “communal prejudice”.

“Evicting families without having plans to rehabilitate them is against human rights,” said KMSS publicity secretary Ratul Hussain.