Assam Police arrests 453 land brokers in 24 hours after CM Himanta’s call to end ‘Dalal Raj’

The CM said there should not be any middleman in the police stations as well as the offices of district transport officers, circle officers, DMs, etc.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (Photo | PTI)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (Photo | PTI)

GUWAHATI: The Assam Police arrested 453 land brokers in the past 24 hours during multiple raids conducted across the state.

“453 land brokers picked up so far in continuing raids by @assampolice in our concerted pledge to end #AssamFightsDalalRaj. This notorious practice of brokers/dalals in revenue offices harassing commoners must end. Our fight against nefarious activities will go on relentlessly,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted.

Prior to leaving for Nagaland’s commercial hub Dimapur on Tuesday to meet Thuingaleng Muivah, leader of the insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagalim, Sarma requested the people of Assam to not give money to the middlemen to get work done.

“I request the state government employees from top to bottom to not give any access to the middlemen to their offices. We want to eradicate the system of middlemen. If it continues to exist, Assam can never make any progress,” he said.

He categorically stated that there should not be any middleman in the police stations as well as the offices of district transport officers, circle officers, district magistrates, etc.

Special Director-General of Police, GP Singh said the persons were arrested for indulging in unlawful activities involving land sale, purchase, and holding.

“The action shall continue. We strive to identify the black sheep amongst government personnel involved, along with ascertaining unlawful backward and forward linkages of the persons arrested and take further action thereafter,” Singh tweeted.

At a recent state-level conference, Sarma had directed all circle officers to eliminate the practice of middlemen to enable people to get their land-related work done without any hassles. He had warned that the circle officers would be taken to task if the middlemen were allowed access to their offices.

The drive against middlemen comes amidst the fight against drugs. Since the installation of Sarma’s government on May 10 this year, drugs worth crores of rupees were seized. A number of traders, peddlers, and smugglers of drugs were also arrested.

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