Assam government starts eviction drive in Goalpara district
Goalpara district
.
With this eviction the district administration will reclaim around 1,040 bighas of land in Paikan Reserve Forest of Krishnai Forest Range in Goalpara.
The encroachers were given a July 10 deadline to vacate the area. The
Gauhati High court
has earlier asked the government to clear encroachment in the forest land.
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A senior government officer said, "We are clearing 149 hectares. The process is likely to be completed by Sunday. About 2,070 concrete structures need to be dismantled. This is a forest land that has been encroached upon. Heavy deployment of police personnel, along with bulldozers, excavators, and senior officials, is in place to ensure the drive is conducted without disruption.'
One of the alleged encroachers tried to end his life while being evicted but was stopped by one of his family members and was rushed to the hospital.
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Opposition parties have launched protests over the eviction, the All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) alleged that they were stopped by police while they were trying to enter the eviction site. Eight AIUDF MLAs staged a demonstration against the government outside the eviction site.
AIUDF MLA Hafiz Rafikul Islam said, "These villages have been marked in the Assam NRC of 1951. People here have voter cards. There are electricity lines, roads, water projects, and government schools. All these in forest land? How can it be forest land? How can these people be encroachers?"
Assam chief minister
Himanta Biswa Sarma
recently said that in the last four years as many as 25,000 acres have been cleared of illegal encroachment.
Some organisations claimed that this drive is targeted towards Bengali speaking Muslim.
Talking to media persons on Thursday, Sarma said, 'As of now, the Assam government has cleared thousands of bighas of land in the last four years. In my view, it is not less than 25,000 acres of land.'
The chief minister said that the government will provide land to the evicted people however they have to prove that they are landless, and they must be Indian citizens. 'They have to be landless in their native places, not at the evicted place.'.
He claimed that the recent eviction drive in Lakhimpur in Upper Assam has revealed startling facts. "People from Sribhumi, South Salmara-Mankachar and other minority-dominated areas were residing in the northern Assam district. While Sribhumi is in Barak valley, South Salmara and Mankachar is in Southern Assam.There was a big conspiracy to change the demography of Lakhimpur."
Sarma said'In Goalpara, there are 200-300-years-old temples. But Hindus in the area are a minority,' he added.
On Tuesday, the Dhubri district and police administration carried out an eviction drive at three villages under Chapar revenue circle and cleared approx 3500 bighas of land. However, the situation turned violent at Chapar as some of the encroachers opposed the eviction and there was stone pelting on the police and other officials from the administration, which led to damage of two excavators.
"Large swathes of land have been encroached upon by people from different places. We must clear those so that the areas can be used for projects for public goods. This was done at Chapar in Dhubri on July 8," said the Chief Minister.
The All BTC Minority Students' Union (ABMSU) staged a protest in Bedlangmari, Kokrajhar recently demanding an immediate halt to the ongoing eviction drives across Assam.
ABMSU Central General Secretary Jaidul Islam accused the BJP-led Assam government of disproportionately targeting minority communities, particularly Muslims, through eviction drives.
'Since the BJP came to power, many minority families have been made homeless. This is a deliberate attempt to push Muslims out of Assam,' Islam claimed.
He further stated that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's policies are 'systematically reducing Muslims to second-class citizens.'
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