580 More Families Evicted As Assam Resumes Demolition Drive
Govt.'s mega eviction drive to remove illegal settlers from forest land
Guwahati : The Assam government on Sunday launched a mega eviction drive in Western Assam’s Goalpara district to evict alleged encroachment from around 1,140 bighas (153 hectares) of forest land. The deputy commissioner of Goalpara Prodip Timung told reporters that the eviction drive is likely to take at least two-three days. “We have issued eviction notices to 580 families. The entire stretch of land is completely under the Dahikata Reserve Forest and has been encroached by these people,” he said.
Pointing out that about 70 percent of the "illegal settlers" of the area have already left the place after getting the notices, he said that the remaining encroachers are in the process of vacating the land.
Informing that the eviction drive which started on Sunday has not faced any resistance so far, he however said that the district administration has engaged adequate security personnel and used dozens of excavators along with scores of tractors during the eviction exercise. "We have divided the area into five blocks, and in only one block, some people are still there. In the other blocks, 80 percent of the people have left," he said.
It is significant that Assam has witnessed a massive eviction campaign this year, with several demolition drives carried out across multiple districts in a move that the government has called a step to stem a “demographic invasion” by “people of one religion”. Majority of those evicted have been people of Bengali origin from the Muslim community.
The drive was temporarily suspended after the mega eviction drives of July and August, following the death of Assamese superstar singer Zubeen Garg on September 19.
It is significant that Goalpara district has already witnessed multiple mega eviction drives to clear encroachments on forest land. A similar eviction drive to clear 140 hectares of forest land in the Paikan Reserve Forest in the district was conducted on July 12, and on June 16, a drive to evict over 600 families from a wetland area in the district’s Hasila Beel had also been conducted.
Meanwhile, a number of those evicted on Sunday accused the Congress party for not giving them proper settlement during their regime. Arguing that they were allowed to get settlement on forest lands during the Congress regime, the evicted families alleged that the land given to them by the government was not legalised by the Congress leaders.
