Ahead of LS Polls, Assam puts curbs on inter-faith land sale for 3 months

Guwahati: The Assam government has stopped selling of lands between two different communities for three months to avoid any possible "conflict on communal lines" ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Issuing a notification, the Revenue and Disaster Management Authority claimed that the intelligence agencies have informed the government of several cases of attempted transfer of land by fraudulent means in some places.

As per the input, "land is being forced to transfer to some religious communities from some other religious communities", it added.

"...attempts are being made on the part of vested interest to create conflict on communal lines, particularly in the run-up to the ensuing elections to the House of Parliament Constituencies," stated the notification, signed by Revenue & Disaster Management Principal Secretary Gyanendra Dev Tripathi on March 7.

In view of this fact, the government directed that all cases for grant of No Objection Certificate (NOC) for sale of land, where buyer and seller belong to different religions, shall be kept in abeyance for a period of three months from the date of issue of the notification.

"However, if the District Commissioner is of the view that grant of such NOC is absolutely necessary for attending circumstances and will not lead to any breach of law and order, the same may be issued with prior concurrence of Inspector General of Registration, Assam," Tripathi said.

The voting of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam will take place at 28,645 polling stations in three phases on April 19, 26 and May 7, while the counting of votes will be on June 4 after completion of the entire seven-phase voting across the country.