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The Hindu
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
309 families evicted from Assam grazing reserve
The authorities in northeastern Assam's Biswanath district evicted 309 families from a village grazing reserve (VGR) on Sunday (August 17, 2025). Officials in the district said some 600 security personnel, 20 excavators, and 10 bulldozers were deployed to clear 175 bighas or 23 hectares of land in the Japariguri VGR from encroachment. District Commissioner Simanta Kumar Das said many families dismantled their houses and left after receiving notices on August 1 to vacate within 15 days. 'The remaining structures, including a tea garden, were demolished,' he said. The encroachers, officials said, were mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims. While organisations of indigenous communities have backed such eviction drives, the All-Assam Minority Students' Union said the Biswanath exercise was carried out inhumanely and demanded a pause until the government ensures rehabilitation of the people targeted. CM's 'hate-driven propaganda' In his Independence Day speech, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma vowed to continue such eviction drives to free forestlands, grazing lands, and government revenue lands from encroachers of 'doubtful citizenship'. He also warned the indigenous communities about a future where they will be at the mercy of 'strangers' unless they defend their cultural identity. Assam MLA and All-India United Democratic Front general secretary Rafiqul Islam criticised the Chief Minister for defaming Muslims. He also said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Assam government has been systematically keeping Muslim officers away from key positions. Terming the Chief Minister's Independence Day speech as 'hate-driven propaganda' to polarise the people on religious lines, he told agencies that the BJP-led government has consciously not appointed any Muslim as the District Commissioner or Superintendent of Police, although there are several Muslim IAS and IPS officers in Assam.
NDTV
19 hours ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Assam Government Evicts 309 Families From 23 Hectares Of Land
Tezpur: The Assam government on Sunday began an eviction drive in Biswanath district, displacing 309 families, officials said. The eviction drive was started in the morning to clear encroachment on nearly 175 bigha or 23 hectare of land in the Village Grazing Reserve (VGR) in Japariguri, they said. "The eviction drive is going on peacefully. There were 309 families who had encroached on 175 bigha of land. Notices were issued to them on August 1 to vacate the areas within 15 days," District Commissioner Simanta Kumar Das said. He said all the families have already left the area, and many of them had dismantled their houses. "We demolished the remaining houses. There was also one big tea garden. That is being dismantled now for the forestation drive later," he said. The DC said 600 security personnel were deployed, and 20 excavators, along with dozens of tractors, were used during the eviction drive. The encroachers were mostly from the Bengali-speaking Muslim community, another official said. Visiting the site, All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) General Secretary Kuddus Ali Sarkar alleged that the Himanta Biswa Sarma government has been evicting people in an "inhuman manner". "We demand an immediate halt to the eviction drive. Unless people are rehabilitated properly, no eviction should take place," he said. Supporting the state government's steps to evict encroachments on public land, several ethnic organisations have started 'Miya Kheda Andolan' (movement to drive out Miyas) in the state. 'Miya' is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam, and the non-Bengali-speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants. In recent years, activists from the community have started adopting this term as a gesture of defiance. In his Independence Day speech, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that "aggression" has changed the demography of lower and central Assam, and now efforts are being made for it in upper and north Assam, in an apparent reference to the community.
