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8 hours ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Assam: Evicted residents claim government had helped them settle in disputed area in 1970s
Residents displaced by an eviction drive launched by the Assam government on Tuesday in the Golaghat district claimed that the government itself had helped them settle in the area over 40 years ago to prevent alleged encroachment from Nagaland, the Morung Express reported on Wednesday. The Assam government launched the eviction drive in the Golaghat district on Tuesday morning to clear alleged encroachments on more than 3,600 acres of forest land in the Rengma Reserve Forest. Nearly 1,500 Muslim families are likely to be displaced by the drive. Residents who were evicted on Tuesday from the Bidyapur village in Golaghat claimed that the settlement was established under the patronage of the Assam government in the late 1970s in a contested area on the state's border with Nagaland, called the disputed area belt. Both states have questioned each other's claims on the disputed area belt for more than 60 years. One of the displaced residents in Bidyapur told the Morung Express: 'We are branded illegal settlers today, but my parents were settled here by the Assam government when [Janata Party leader] Golap Borbora was Chief Minister [1978–79].' Ali Kazi, who was among those who received eviction notices, said that the villagers were brought to the area in the 1980s to protect the forest land from 'encroachment' by Nagaland, The New Indian Express reported. 'Where will we go from here?' Kazi asked. 'My father had come from Nagaon district around 40 years ago, but I was born here.' Kazi also stated that the residents had requested the administration to settle them at an alternative place, but they refused, The New Indian Express reported. Another resident, Akbar Ali, accused the state government of selective targeting during the drive, reported The Assam Tribune. 'We have lived here for 40 years,' Ali was quoted as saying. 'There are Bodo, Assamese, Hindu, and Muslim people here, but the authorities seem to focus only on us. If the government wants to evict us, they should at least offer us a place to go.' However, Golap Borbora's son Pankaj Borbora said that under his father's government, land distribution had taken place in Doyang, not the Uriamghat area where the evictions are currently taking place. 'And it was done for indigenous, landless communities who had been struggling for land rights for decades,' he said in a Facebook post. The state government has claimed that the area being cleared was an illegal settlement. 'Around 2,000 families are living in those areas,' PTI quoted an unidentified official as saying. 'Out of them, notices were served to about 1,500 families, who illegally settled here. The remaining families are forest dwellers and have certificates from the Forest Rights Committee.' Those whose homes are being demolished belong to the Muslim community, while those who have certificates from the Forest Rights Committee are from Bodo, Nepali, Manipuri and other communities, the official added. HCM Dr @himantabiswa visited Uriamghat in Golaghat district to inspect sites identified for eviction of encroached govt land. HCM stated that eviction of VGR, PGR, Satra & forest land will continue in phases. — Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) July 25, 2025 Earlier this month, 15 residents of the Golaghat district challenged eviction notices sent to them on July 21 and July 24 before the Gauhati High Court. In response to the petitions, the High Court on Tuesday granted them time till August 7 to vacate the land. This is the sixth eviction carried out in Assam since June 16. On June 16, Goalpara district authorities demolished the homes of 690 families, all of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, who were living on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel, a wetland. The families told Scroll that many of them were living in the area before it was declared a wetland. On July 3, around 220 families were evicted during an anti-encroachment drive in upper Assam's Lakhimpur district. The district authorities said the families were living on 77 acres of land at four locations, including three Village Grazing Reserves. Dhubri District Magistrate Dibakar Nath told Scroll on July 8 that the administration had demolished the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin from nearly 1,157 acres of government land to make way for a power project. On July 12, authorities in Goalpara cleared 140 hectares of land in the Paikan Reserve Forest, displacing 1,080 families, most of whom are Muslims of Bengali origin. Between 2016 and August 2024, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – were evicted from government land, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department.
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Massive eviction drive launched in Assam's Golaghat; 15,000 people, mostly Muslims, affected
Contrary to government claims that the area was encroached, the demolished properties include houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), water connection under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), government schools under Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and electricity connections to almost every household, besides markets, mosques, madrassas and churches, according to locals. The affected families questioned the rationale of the eviction drive and claimed that they were brought to the place by the earlier governments to protect the area from the alleged invasion of Nagaland. "Where will we go from here? My father had come from Nagaon district around 40 years ago, but I was born here. We were brought here during the 1980s to protect the forest land from encroachment from Nagaland," said Ali Kazi, who also received an eviction notice. He claimed that most of the alleged encroachers' previous generation was settled in the forest area by the Janata Party government, headed by ex-CM Golap Borbora, in 1978-79 and the first AGP government, which came to power in 1985. Notably, the assembly was informed in March that almost 83,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam were being occupied by four neighbouring states. It was also stated that Nagaland captured the highest amount of land in Assam -- 59,490.21 hectares. Kazi claimed, "We have been cooperating with the authorities in this eviction drive. We requested them to settle us somewhere else, but they refused. We now have no option but to stay under tents. We are not even given drinking water; forget about food. It's very inhuman." Another eviction victim, Mamtaj Ali, asked, "If we were illegal settlers, how did we get electricity connections? Why did the government open schools and give us JJM connections? We were also given houses under PM Awas Yojana." When asked about these government infrastructure, a senior official of the forest department accepted that such facilities were provided by the authorities, and some of these installations were made even after 2016 when the BJP came to power for the first time in Assam. "I do not know why these were sanctioned and established in this area. These were made before I came here," he added. There were mosques and madrassa for people belonging to the Muslim community, while churches were set up by the Bodo people, the official said. Meanwhile, the Niki Sumi faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland viewed the eviction drive as a 'well-planned' move by the Assam government to grab the ancestral lands of the Nagas. The rebel group alleged that successive Assam governments encouraged the policy of settling 'illegal Bangladeshi immigrants' in the inter-state border areas with the alleged intention to grab the lands of the Nagas. The massive eviction drive followed Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's recent visit to Uriamghat. 'People of Assam are victims of the mass scale encroachment, demographic alteration and violence which is caused by illegal settlers. They are firmly behind our Govt in our crackdown against encroachment and realise the need to reclaim what's truly ours,' Sarma posted on X on July 29 Earlier this month, the Assam government had carried out major eviction drives in Lakhimpur, Goalpara and Dhubri districts which displaced thousands of Muslims. (With inputs from PTI)
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Massive eviction drive underway in Assam's Golaghat; over 1500 Muslim families to be affected
"Where will we go from here? My father had come from Nagaon district around 40 years ago, but I was born here. We were brought here during the 1980s to protect the forest land from encroachment from Nagaland," said Ali Kazi, who also received an eviction notice. He claimed that most of the alleged encroachers' previous generation was settled in the forest area by the Janata Party government, headed by ex-CM Golap Borbora, in 1978-79 and the first AGP government, which came to power in 1985. Notably, the assembly was informed in March that almost 83,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam were being occupied by four neighbouring states. It was also stated that Nagaland captured the highest amount of land in Assam -- 59,490.21 hectares. Kazi claimed, "We have been cooperating with the authorities in this eviction drive. We requested them to settle us somewhere else, but they refused. We now have no option but to stay under tents. We are not even given drinking water; forget about food. It's very inhuman." Another eviction victim, Mamtaj Ali, asked, "If we were illegal settlers, how did we get electricity connections? Why did the government open schools and give us JJM connections? We were also given houses under PM Awas Yojana." When asked about these government infrastructure, a senior official of the forest department accepted that such facilities were provided by the authorities, and some of these installations were made even after 2016 when the BJP came to power for the first time in Assam. "I do not know why these were sanctioned and established in this area. These were made before I came here," he added. There were mosques and madrassa for people belonging to the Muslim community, while churches were set up by the Bodo people, the official said. For carrying out the eviction drive across 12 villages, the authorities divided the entire area into nine zones and conducted a survey accordingly, he added. "An extensive land survey of around 30 villages of the Rengma Reserve Forest was done.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Eviction underway to clear encroachment on 3,600 acres of forest land in Assam's Golaghat
A massive eviction drive is underway to clear alleged encroachment on over 3,600 acres of forest land in Assam's Golaghat district, officials said on Tuesday (July 29, 2025). The move by the state government will affect at least 1,500 families, they said. Several senior officials of the Golaghat district administration and the forest department told PTI that the eviction drive started in the morning to clear the alleged encroachment on almost 11,000 bighas (over 3,600 acres) of land in the Rengma Reserve Forest in Uriamghat along the Assam-Nagaland border in Sarupathar sub-division. Although the government has claimed that the area was encroached, there were houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), water connection under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), government schools under Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and electricity connections to almost every household, besides markets, mosques, madrassas and churches, the locals claimed. "The eviction started from the main market in the Bidyapur area. We will gradually proceed to residential areas and demolish the illegal housing structures," an official said. He claimed that around 10,500 bighas to 11,000 bighas of land were encroached upon by the people. "Around 2,000 families are living in those areas. Out of them, notices were served to about 1,500 families, who illegally settled here. The remaining families are forest dwellers and have certificates from the Forest Rights Committee (FRC)," the official said. The families whose houses are being demolished belong to the Muslim community, while those having FRC certificates are from Bodo, Nepali, Manipuri and other communities, he added. "Around 80% of the families who had received notices have already vacated their illegal settlements in the last few days. We are only demolishing their homes," the official added. While speaking to PTI, the affected families, however, questioned the rationale of the eviction drive and claimed that they were brought to the place by the earlier governments to protect the area from the alleged invasion of Nagaland. "Where will we go from here? My father had come from Nagaon district around 40 years ago, but I was born here. We were brought here during the 1980s to protect the forest land from encroachment from Nagaland," said Ali Kazi, who also received an eviction notice. He claimed that most of the alleged encroachers' previous generation was settled in the forest area by the Janata Party government, headed by ex-CM Golap Borbora, in 1978-79 and the first AGP government, which came to power in 1985. Notably, the assembly was informed in March that almost 83,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam were being occupied by four neighbouring states. It was also stated that Nagaland captured the highest amount of land in Assam — 59,490.21 hectares. Mr. Kazi claimed, "We have been cooperating with the authorities in this eviction drive. We requested them to settle us somewhere else, but they refused. We now have no option but to stay under tents. We are not even given drinking water; forget about food. It's very inhuman." Another eviction victim, Mamtaj Ali, asked, "If we were illegal settlers, how did we get electricity connections? Why did the government open schools and give us JJM connections? We were also given houses under PM Awas Yojana." When asked about these government infrastructure, a senior official of the forest department accepted that such facilities were provided by the authorities, and some of these installations were made even after 2016 when the BJP came to power for the first time in Assam. "I do not know why these were sanctioned and established in this area. These were made before I came here," he added. There were mosques and madrassa for people belonging to the Muslim community, while churches were set up by the Bodo people, the official said. For carrying out the eviction drive across 12 villages, the authorities divided the entire area into nine zones and conducted a survey accordingly, he added. "An extensive land survey of around 30 villages of the Rengma Reserve Forest was done. It is found that several thousand bighas of forest land have been converted into agricultural land by the suspected encroachers in 12 villages," another official said. A district administration official said that proper notices were served by the forest department to the encroachers, giving them seven days to vacate the place. He said that many of the suspected encroachers are reportedly from Nagaon, Morigaon and Sonitpur districts. The Assam Police have stationed a senior official from the headquarters in Golaghat to oversee the law and order situation during the eviction drive. "There are enough security personnel deployed, and we are fully prepared. Apart from our personnel, we have taken support from CRPF for the eviction exercise," he told PTI without sharing further details. In the meantime, the Nagaland government issued an advisory to the bordering districts to keep a strict vigil so that displaced people cannot cross into the state in the event of the eviction drive. On July 25, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Uriamghat to inspect the areas that have been encroached upon and for which the state government had already issued eviction notices. He said those who had settled on these land parcels came from various districts in Assam, such as Cachar, Sribhumi, Dhubri, Barpeta, Hojai, Nagaon and Morigaon, as well as from other states, including West Bengal and Bihar.
