Latest news with #KhanindraChoudhury
Time of India
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
667 families evicted from 600 bighas in Goalpara, 5 schools to be demolished
1 2 3 4 Guwahati: State govt on Monday conducted a drive to evict 667 families allegedly encroaching over 600 bighas of land in lower Assam's Goalpara district. The families mostly belong to the Bengali-speaking Muslim community, officials said. The operation began at 7 am in Hasilabeel village under Balijana revenue circle amid heavy security deployment in the district, they added. Goalpara DC Khanindra Choudhury said there was no resistance from the people occupying that land and no untoward incident was reported. The eviction was carried out in 45% of 1,555 bighas of land (around 699 bighas), while the remaining area is a water body. The DC added that the villagers were served eviction notices earlier in 2023 and 2024 but failed to vacate. "We again served them notices on Friday and asked them to clear their houses by Monday morning. Placards and posters were also put up at different places with the same message," he said. An official added that there are five lower primary schools in the village, which are slated for demolition. At least 20 bulldozers and excavators were deployed for the purpose on Monday. However, the eviction had to be stopped at around 3 pm and will resume on Tuesday. Choudhury, along with senior superintendent of police Navneet Mahanta, camped in the village since morning on Monday, while IGP (law and order) Akhilesh Kumar Singh arrived later to review the situation. According to officials, many residents left the village with their belongings after the notices were served, while the remaining families have requested the district administration to rehabilitate them. A resident claimed that he was born in the village, as was his father, and his family has lived in the village for the last couple of decades. "My grandfather settled here when the Jogighopa bridge over the Brahmaputra river was being constructed. We are cooperating with the authorities and have requested them to provide us with an alternative place to stay," the he said. The bridge, Naranarayan Setu, was inaugurated on Apr 15, 1998. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said eviction drives to clear encroached land will continue. He added that many eviction drives were carried out over the last four years, and his govt ensured that the cleared land is not encroached again. He claimed that clearing encroached land is the biggest achievement of the present state govt.
Scroll.in
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Rush Hour: Assam to bulldoze 600 homes, Indian students in Iran being moved to safer places and more
We're building a brand-new studio to bring you bold ground reports, sharp interviews, hard-hitting podcasts, explainers and more. Support Scroll's studio fund today. The Assam government began a drive to demolish the homes of 667 families, the majority of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, in an anti-encroachment drive in the Goalpara district. The authorities razed 45% of the homes on Monday and said the drive will continue on Tuesday. The district administration claimed that it had served notices to the villagers to vacate the land in 2023 and 2024. As they failed to do so, they were asked to clear the area by Monday, claimed Goalpara District Commissioner Khanindra Choudhury. Many residents have asked the district administration to rehabilitate them. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been ousted from government land, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department in August. Read on. Some Indian students were being moved to safer places within Iran amid the country's escalating military tensions with Israel, said New Delhi on Monday. India's Ministry of External Affairs also stated that its embassy in Tehran was 'continuously monitoring the security situation'. This came after Israel on Friday struck what it claimed were nuclear targets and also other sites in Iran with an aim of stalling Tehran's nuclear programme. Tel Aviv has claimed that Iran was 'closer than ever' to obtaining a nuclear weapon, and said it had no choice but to 'fulfil the obligation to act in defence of its citizens'. On Saturday, Iran retaliated with missile attacks at several places in Israel, including the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. Israel renewed its attacks on Iran on Sunday, striking Tehran and other areas across the country for the third consecutive day. The Iranian military continued its missile attacks on Israel on Monday. The attacks have led to fears of a wider escalation of the conflict. While 224 persons have reportedly been killed in Iran so far, Israel has reported 14 deaths. Read on. The identities of 87 persons who died in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad on June 12 have been confirmed through DNA testing. The bodies of 57 persons have been handed over to their families after the identification. Gujarat's former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's body was also handed over to his family on Monday. Rupani was among the 242 persons aboard the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft – enroute to London's Gatwick airport from Ahmedabad – that crashed just 33 seconds after taking off. Read on.
Scroll.in
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Assam begins drive to bulldoze over 600 homes in Goalpara district
The Assam government on Monday began its drive to demolish the homes of 667 families, the majority of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, in an anti-encroachment drive in the Goalpara district. Goalpara District Commissioner Khanindra Choudhury told Scroll that 45% of the homes on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel area were razed on Monday. The demolition drive will continue on Tuesday to clear the remaining structures, he added. 'There was no resistance from the encroachers and no untoward incident has been reported so far,' PTI quoted Choudhury as saying. The official claimed that the district administration had served eviction notices to the villagers in 2023 and 2024, instructing them to vacate the 'wetland area'. 'We again served them notices on Friday and asked them to clear their houses by Monday morning,' PTI quoted Choudhury as saying. Many residents left the village with their belongings, while the remaining families have requested that the district administration rehabilitate them. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been ousted from government land, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department in August. In September, the Goalpara district administration carried out a demolition drive in which 450 families, or about 2,000 persons, were evicted. The families were illegally occupying 55 hectares of the Bandarmatha Reserve Forest, the newspaper quoted unidentified officials as saying. The evictions in Goalpara were carried out in line with a High Court order. This had come less than two weeks after two men were shot dead by the police amid violent protests during an eviction drive in Moregaon. On September 9, the district authorities bulldozed nearly 240 homes, the majority of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims from Morigaon district. The residents had built their homes in the low-lying area over several decades. Three days later, on September 12, the officials returned and gave them an ultimatum to vacate the land in two hours. This led to a violent clash between the residents and the officials, during which two men were shot dead by the police. Thirty-three persons, including 22 government and police officers, were also injured in the clash.
