Call for migrant certs for people displaced by erosion

GUWAHATI: Barpeta MP and senior Congress leader Abdul Khaleque has written to Union home minister Amit Shah, seeking migrant certificates for erosion-hit people so that they are not harassed as “illegal” migrants.
The MP said a large number of people get uprooted and displaced from their homes every year due to floods and erosion and they migrate to different places of Assam. He added that these people are often branded as “illegal migrants” despite the fact that they are residents of Assam for several generations.
Khaleque said, “Whenever erosion-hit people are asked to prove their citizenship before foreigners tribunals, quasi-judicial bodies, they submit various documents, including voters’ list and land documents, of their earlier place of residence. Very often, tribunals don’t believe these documents and declares them as ‘foreigners’ stating that they have picked documents of similar names from different villages. Many of these people land up in detention centres.”
He added, “This arbitrary deprivation of nationality is against the principle of fair trial laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in various judgments and several international treaties and instruments that Indian is party to.”
Khaleque urged the home minister to allow local authorities of the erosion-hit areas to issue certificates of migration to these people so that they are not harassed.
A government official said there is no “compulsory” provision to issue certificates to those affected in floods or erosion whose houses have been wasjed away. But affected people’s data like how many villages have been washed away is maintained in the respective circle office.
“If any affected people wants a certificate that his house was washed away in floods or erosion, the local circle officer can give the certificate on demand certifying that his house has been eroded,” the official said.
While drawing the attention to the issue faced by the people living in small river islands locally known as chars, the MP said the issue is creating a lot of problems for the poor people who are forced to relocate themselves after a certain period of time due to floods.
The MP said every year, Assam suffers from severe loss of lives and properties due to floods and erosion. According to the Land Policy, 2019 published by the Government of Assam, an area of about 7,000 square kilometers of land of the state of Assam has been eroded by different river since 1950.There are around 2000 large and small river islands (char) across the state, where lakhs of people reside. These river islands are temporary and get eroded every 10 to 15 years and in some cases even in a lesser time.