Assam: Normalcy being restored, 119 police pickets set up

The situation in Assam's trouble-torn Bodoland Territorial Administered Districts was "moving towards normalcy" and police have set up 119 new police pickets to help rehabilitation of the affected people, official sources said on Tuesday.

In Kokrajhar, 86 new police pickets have been set up while in Chirang, 33 have been set up in areas identified as vulnerable to enable people to return to their homes, Inspector General of Police (BTAD) S N Singh said.

This list is, however, not final and "if people feel the need for more security during the rehabilitation, we will increase the number of police pickets as and when necessary," he said.

"With no untoward incident reported during the past week, we can say that the situation is moving towards normalcy," he said.

Singh said the rehabilitation would take some time as land documents were being verified but the process had already been initiated and the forces were prepared to provide necessary security to those returning home.

The process of verification of land documents of the inmates of the relief camps, which was made mandatory by the Bodoland Territorial Council and Assam government, has already started in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts and would soon begin in Dhubri, official sources said in Guwahati.

Currently, there are 2,42,910 inmates in 218 camps in Kokrajhar, Chirang, Dhubri, Bongaigaon and Barpeta.

There were altogether 4,85,921 inmates in 340 relief camps during the height of the violence, which began on July 19 and claimed 96 lives so far.