The Gauhati High Court has cancelled the allocation of 151 bighas of grazing reserve land in the Hojai subdivision of Nagaon district allotted illegally to Markazul Ma’Arif, a NGO whose chief patron is All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) supremo Badruddin Ajmal. A divisional bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice AK Goel and Justice N Choudhury, based on a petition (69/2005) filed by one Idrish Ali, passed the order wherein the court also directed the State government to demolish all permanent constructions that taken place on the plot of land measuring 151 bighas allotted to Markazul Ma’Arif in the year 2000. The high court has also directed the State government to initiate action against the then Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of Nagaon district administration, Sub Divisional Agriculture Officer of Hojai and Circle Officer of Jamunamukh who were instrumental in unauthorised handing over of the village grazing reserve land to the NGO, Advocate Ram Prasad Sharma, legal counsel of the petitioner, said. Sharma said the court had passed the order based on the inquiry report of the DC, Nagaon submitted in the court on December 12, 2012. “The 151 bighas of land had initially been handed over to the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) in the year 1995, but in 1998, the KVK had handed over the plot back to government as it could not start the project work in the area. Following the hand over, the plot was again converted into grazing reserve and taking advantage of it, the plot of land was illegally acquired by the NGO Markazul Ma’Arif and finally it was illegally allotted in the year 2000 to the NGO,” Sharma said.