Evictions drive to clear encroachment in Assam’s Goalpara concludes

The Assam government’s eviction drive to remove 667 families who had allegedly encroached on vast tracts of land in Assam’s Goalpara district was completed on Tuesday, an official said.
The eviction drive was being carried out since Monday morning amid tight security but it had to be stopped in the afternoon due to rains.
The drive resumed on Tuesday morning and was completed by evening with no resistance from the encroachers and no untoward incident reported on both days.
All structures in the encroached area of the village have been cleared with houses, mostly concrete, demolished, the official added,
The eviction was carried out in 45 per cent of the 1555 bigha area in Hasilabeel village under Balijana revenue circle where the families had settled down while the remaining area is a waterbody. Five Lower Primary schools in the village were also demolished.
Around 20 bulldozers and excavators are engaged in the demolition of the structures, he said.
A Congress delegation of eight MLAs, led by South Salmara lawmaker Wajed Ali Choudhury, visited the area.
After their visit, the delegation submitted a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu through the district administration requesting her intervention to ‘urgently stop the large-scale eviction as it grossly violates the principles of natural justice, humanitarian and constitutional safeguards and rights’.
The district administration has evicted over 4000 belonging to 667 families from the migrant Bengali-speaking Muslim community who have been living in the area for over 70 years and they have all been ‘permanent settlers’ there, the Congress MLAs claimed.
They asserted that Hasilabeel is a revenue village which does not fall either within any Reserved Forest (RF) or Protected Reserve Forest (PRF).
Hasilabeel has been provided with almost all government facilities like electrification, educational institutions, medical sub-health centres, PWD road network and water supplies, including the Jal Jeevan Mission, the leaders said.
They also claimed that there is an educational institution in the village which was established in 1945.
The Congress also claimed that the residents are bonafide Indian citizens having their names in both the NRC of 1951 and 2019 and also in the voters list of 1966, 1971 and all subsequent lists and they have been exercising their franchise. They also alleged that no alternative arrangement for rehabilitation has been made nor any compensation which is gross violation of ‘natural justice, humanitarian principles and constitutional rights that can be supported by a civilised society’.
The MLAs urged the President to intervene and stop the eviction or if it cannot be averted, ‘alternative measures either for rehabilitation or adequate compensation be provided to them’.
A similar memorandum was submitted to Assam Governor Laxman Prasad Acharya through the district administration.