The Congress on Sunday accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his family of “grabbing” 18 acres of land meant for the landless, and demanded his immediate dismissal along with a Supreme Court monitored probe by a special investigative team.Addressing a joint press conference, Congress leaders Jitendra Singh, Gaurav Gogoi and Gourav Vallabh and party MPs Ripun Bora and Abdul Khaleque alleged that Sarma misused his official position to illegally transfer government land for landless people in favour of RBS Realtors from 2006 to 2009.They said as per independent investigations, real estate company RBS Realtors, co-founded by Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, is allegedly occupying around 18 acres of government land intended for landless individuals and institutions.Landless and needy people are granted ceiling surplus land by the Assam government and are prohibited from selling that land for a 10-year period, but in 2009, a total of 11 bigha three katha (3,01,674 sq. feet or 6.92 acres) of ceiling surplus land in Bongora intended for and allotted to needy individuals by the government of Assam, was bought by the company, violating the 10-year lock-in period, they said.The Congress leaders gave details of seven plots in North Guwahati that were bought over from the government allottees by RBS realtors between 2008 and 2009. These allottees were: Lalmoti Talukdar (4.37 acre); Basanta Nath (1,872 sq feet); Satya Talukdar (1.26 acre); Rajubala Talukdar (1.95 acre); Bixoy Nath (0.75 acre); Beliram Talukdar (5,752 sq. feet); and Nobin Nath (2,880 sq. feet).
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