Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday announced that the state Cabinet has approved a special operating procedure to carefully examine land transfers between people belonging to different religions.
“In a sensitive state like Assam, the transfer of land between two religious groups needs to be handled very carefully,” Sarma told reporters. “All such land transfer proposals will now come to the government.”
He explained that the Assam Police’s Special Branch will review each proposal, checking the source of funds, whether the money has been declared in tax returns, and whether the land sale could disturb the “social fabric” of the area. “Authorities will also see if local objections have been addressed and if there is any national security angle,” Sarma said.
After this scrutiny, the deputy commissioner will be informed whether the transfer should be allowed, and the final decision will rest with them.
The chief minister also said that land purchase proposals from non-governmental organisations outside Assam will be examined with extra care. “Only thereafter will permission for land sale be granted,” he said. “However, for local NGOs known for their contribution, no such procedure needs to be followed.”
The announcement comes just days after Sarma claimed that “unknown” people had changed the demography of lower and central Assam and were now targeting the upper and northern regions of the state.
He has repeatedly warned against what he calls “land jihad,” a conspiracy theory pushed by Hindutva groups that accuses Muslims of grabbing land through encroachments. On Sunday, Sarma also said that the names of those evicted from government land will be deleted from voter lists to prevent them from returning.
“Our previous generation could not save lower and central Assam. Now we must save the upper and northern parts of the state,” he said, in an apparent reference to Bengali-speaking Muslims in those regions.
Government data shows that since 2016, when the BJP came to power, over 15,000 families – most of them Muslim – have been evicted from government land in Assam. At least eight Muslims have been killed in police firing during eviction drives in this period.
