453 held in Assam for illegal land broking activities

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said 453 people have been arrested for allegedly being involved in illegal land broking activities.

The state police will continue to take action against those who are harassing people inland revenue offices, he said.

Taking to Twitter, Sarma said, ''453 land brokers picked up so far in continuing raids by @assampolice in our concerted pledge to end AssamFightsDalalRaj. This notorious practice of brokers/dollars in revenue offices harassing commoners must end. Our fight against nefarious activities will go on relentlessly.'' These people were apprehended on Monday night for their alleged involvement in unlawful activities related to land purchase, a senior police officer said.

''We have a list of about 700 names and will try to arrest all the suspects by this evening. If we dig deeper, more names could emerge,'' Sarma told reporters later in the day. He asked officials not to allow such land brokers to function in their offices.

The chief minister, in a meeting with officials of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department on September 7, had said middlemen must be eliminated from the system and people should be empowered to get their land-related works done without any hassle.

''In line with directions of the Hon @CMOfficeAssam, the teams of @assampolice have arrested more than 450 persons last night indulging in unlawful activities involving land sale/purchase/holding,'' Special DGP (Law and Order) G P Singh said on the microblogging site.

The chief minister urged people to restrain from indulging in illegal practices of land brokers and wait for a few days to get their works done directly from the offices concerned.

Noting that sometimes people have to pay bribes to get the death certificates of their relatives, the chief minister said there should be no middlemen in any government office.

''If we want our state to progress, this has to stop. There should be no delays (middlemen) in any office, be it in police stations, or revenue offices,'' Sarma said.