Guwahati: An anti-displacement team of scholars from JNU and Delhi University, visited Dholpur Darrang district on Monday, where a massive eviction drive in September left hundreds homeless, said on Tuesday that the evicted minorities had become “stateless within the state”.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, he termed it as a grand ploy to “encroach” the land of minorities, Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam and Rohingya in Myanmar. The “Investigation Team” visited the violence-hit villages in Dholpur of Sipajhar revenue division. Dr Vikas Bajpai, Faculty of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Professor Vishwajit Mohanty from Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi were among the team members.
Professor Mohanty said, “Eviction has become part of the larger political economy. Here, as in Dholpur, in Rohingya-inhabited areas of Myanmar, the political class is targeting minorities.”
The Assam government has launched a state agriculture project in the Dholpur area involving local youth, but not the 1,000 Muslim families who are now taking shelter in makeshift camps near the Brahmaputra.
“The current status of those who were forcibly evicted is precarious. They are living in temporary sheds made of tin, straw and bamboo, with no sanitation, safe drinking water, food and healthcare. There were reports that some NGOs and Private bodies were supplying relief. In the form of food and had installed hand pumps. But such help is like a drop of water in the sea,” read a statement from the team.
“It is noteworthy that our team did not find any trace of any government agency reaching out to these people to provide relief in any form, which testifies to the deliberate and nefarious intention of the government to inflict massacre on the people. ” Bajpayee said.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, he termed it as a grand ploy to “encroach” the land of minorities, Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam and Rohingya in Myanmar. The “Investigation Team” visited the violence-hit villages in Dholpur of Sipajhar revenue division. Dr Vikas Bajpai, Faculty of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Professor Vishwajit Mohanty from Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi were among the team members.
Professor Mohanty said, “Eviction has become part of the larger political economy. Here, as in Dholpur, in Rohingya-inhabited areas of Myanmar, the political class is targeting minorities.”
The Assam government has launched a state agriculture project in the Dholpur area involving local youth, but not the 1,000 Muslim families who are now taking shelter in makeshift camps near the Brahmaputra.
“The current status of those who were forcibly evicted is precarious. They are living in temporary sheds made of tin, straw and bamboo, with no sanitation, safe drinking water, food and healthcare. There were reports that some NGOs and Private bodies were supplying relief. In the form of food and had installed hand pumps. But such help is like a drop of water in the sea,” read a statement from the team.
“It is noteworthy that our team did not find any trace of any government agency reaching out to these people to provide relief in any form, which testifies to the deliberate and nefarious intention of the government to inflict massacre on the people. ” Bajpayee said.
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