520 held for illegal land broking activities in Assam

GUWAHATI: As part of the BJP-led state government’s crackdown on brokers operating in land revenue and circle offices, Assam Police arrested 520 people during various raids conducted across the state from Monday night till Tuesday afternoon.
The development comes two weeks after chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while addressing a state level conference of ADCs (Revenue) and circle officers on September 7, directed them to eliminate all ‘middlemen’ or brokers from the system so that the public could empowered to get their land-related work done without any hassle.
On Tuesday, the CM said, “On Monday night, Assam Police arrested around 450 land brokers from different parts of the state. We have a list of nearly 700 such persons involved in taking illegal commissions from the common people and harassing them. We will try and get all of them.”
He warned the government officials not to be in touch with the land brokers and help the people to get their work done without taking any bribe through intermediaries. “We want to change the existing system and put an end to the rule of brokers,” he added, requesting the public to not take help from the brokers for their work.
According to the police data, Kamrup district topped the list with 52 arrests, followed by Guwahati (35), Biswanath (33), Nalbari (31) and Morigaon 27. Special director general of police (law & order) GP Singh said, “We shall continue to take such action. We strive to identify the black sheep amongst government personnel involved along with ascertaining unlawful backward and forward linkages of the persons arrested and will take further action.”
Aparna N, superintendent of police, Morigaon district, said, “We have arrested 27 brokers, which include two-three grade IV government employees also. Based on intelligence input and public complaints, we had a list of brokers. Accordingly, we have identified them and arrested them on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and breach of trust.”
The accused will be produced before the chief judicial magistrate of their respective districts on Wednesday. In a bid to streamline the functioning of the revenue administration, Sarma, during a meeting with the revenue and disaster management officials on Tuesday, announced that the state government will launch a scheme called “Mission Basundhara” to help residents address their land-related issues like mutation, correction of names, sale permission, updating of records, etc on October 2.