The Assam government on Friday began an eviction drive on 330 acres of land in Sonitpur district, PTI reported, citing the police.
The drive is being conducted at No 3 Chitalmari area under Barchalla Assembly constituency on the northern bank of Brahmaputra river, police officials said. About 50 excavators have been pushed into action to demolish the houses and other structures.
The Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government has conducted several eviction drives to clear plots of government land of alleged encroachment. Many of those who have been evicted or are being asked to vacate are poor Muslims who had earlier lost land in floods and erosion.
During one of these drives in October 2021, two persons were killed in Darrang district’s Sipajhar area after the Assam Police opened fire on villagers protesting against the eviction.
On Friday, a police official who was among those supervising the exercise in Sonitpur said that the residents of the area have already vacated their houses. According to government records, 299 families were living in the area.
“The eviction drive has been incident-free so far,” he said. “There has been no law and order situation.”
A district official said that the most number of families are Bengali-speaking Muslims, followed by Bengali Hindus and Gorkhas.
Special Director General of Police (law and order) Gyanendra Pratap Singh said the state government was planning to set up a solar power plant at the site.
Some of the residents who were being evicted said that they have not been provided any rehabilitation by the government.
“We have been living here for decades,” a woman told PTI. “We have no jobs and live off the fields here. We don’t know where we will go.”
Residents said that most of the them had migrated to the area several years ago from Nagaon and Morigaon districts on the southern bank of Brahmaputra river following massive erosion.
However, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Ganesh Kumar Limbu claimed that most of those being evicted have houses in other areas as well. This is why they were leaving without any protest, he added.
Also read:
Four months after violent Assam evictions, displaced families say they got no relief from government
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