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. 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 per cent 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.
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.
