Over 21,000 acre of govt land illegally occupied in Tripura

Over 21,000 acre of government land have been illegally occupied for rubber cultivation across Tripura, state revenue minister N C Debbarma said on Monday.

Replying to a question of BJP MLA Sudhangshu Das in the Assembly, Debbarma said that strict action would be taken against those illegally grabbing government lands to grow rubber.

"The state government has already instructed all the district magistrate and sub-divisional magistrate to take required measures to vacant the government lands," he said.

He also said that the previous Left Front government had allowed people to cultivate rubbers on 21,019 acres of government land and most of the land is still occupied by those people illegally.

Debbarma said, in the Unakoti district, the previous government had allocated land to their close ones and till date, no initiatives have been taken from the state government to vacant them.

He said the state government has taken the initiative to amend the Tripura Land Records and Land Reform Act, 1960 to prevent the misuse of government land.

Tripura is the second-largest rubber producer in India after Kerala, producing more than 68,000 tonnes of the commodity in 85,000 acres of land.