Agartala, Sept 19 (TIWN):Severe resentment is brewing in Chamanu over eviction notice of 1200 tribal families residing in 13 villages. The notice was sent on behalf of district magistrate by SDM, which said the state government has decided to handed over the villages to Assam Rifles . The acquired land will be made firing range. However, the evicted families will be given rehabilitation by government. Meanwhile, security coverage of sub divisional magistrate and block development officer has been doubled.

The problem has come to the fore in the context of the state government's efforts to acquire land for helping Assam Rifles construct a firing range. This will result in displacement 1200 tribal families from remote Gobindabari, Rajdhar, Malidhar, Natin Manu and Putin Manu villages bordering Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh in Dhalai district.

Even before regional parties like the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura took up the issue, the BJP state unit had threatened to launch an agitation on the attempted acquisition.

The Assam Rifles authority has long been pressing the state government for land to construct a firing range. These remote villages in the outlying areas of Chhawmanu block had been earmarked for acquisition. Though the land acquisition issue for the firing range is yet to take a concrete shape, the state government is facing another problem in allotting land to the Assam Rifles in lieu of the 12 acres of land in Agartala where the paramilitary force has its state headquarters.

However, sources in the revenue department here said 68.10 per cent of the state's total geographical territory falls under the ADC based on the Sixth Schedule and acquiring land there was a "very complicated process".

"There are virtually no large plots of land in the plain areas. If the government has to acquire land, it has to do so within the ADC areas. But then there is the question of tribal sentiment, politics and provisions of the Tripura Land Reforms and Land Revenue Act as well as the provisions of the Sixth Schedule, which render large-scale acquisition of land very difficult. The matter will take time to sort out," said an official of the revenue department.

He said the government would sort out the issue in consultation with the ADC as both the government and ADC are run by the same political force - the Left Front.