Assam: AIUDF MLAs stage protest in Assembly against government-initiated eviction drive in Nagaon

All India United Democratic Front's (AIUDF) MLAs on December 20 staged a protest against government-initiated eviction in Assam's Nagaon district. 

They also gathered outside the Assembly to protest against the eviction and suspended Congress MLA Sherman Ali who also participated in the protest in support of the protesting AIUDF MLAs.

"The eviction is not supported at all. The government has allowed some people to apply for land titles and chased away a section of them. It is biased and we strongly oppose it,” said Dhing MLA Aminul Islam while speaking to reporters.

"How can I accept if we evict the Indian people? Will they accept these people when they call them Bangladeshis? The government is biasing these solely for Nagpur. The ruling party has done this eviction in the interest of Nagpur and not in the interest of the people of Assam,'' he added.

Notably, the eviction drive has begun on Government land in Batadrava, the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva, the Vaishnavite saint of Assam. 

For the past several days, a large team of Assam police personnel were camping in Batadrava to evict people living on government land.

Finally, on December 19, in the presence of top officials of the district administration, people who were occupying government land were evicted and houses demolished with the help of excavators. 

While the eviction in Batadrava has been peaceful so far, a section of people have threatened not to leave the site of the eviction.

Meanwhile, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal's son and MLA Sirajuddin Ajmal have informed the media that he would not comment on the eviction of Batadrava. 

The ruling party MLA Diganta Kalita, and Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah, among others, have welcomed the bold decision of Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma to carry out the eviction of Batadrava.

It may be recalled that the Nagaon administration started the eviction drive at Shantijan market in Batadrava at 6 am on December 19. 

Subsequently, an eviction drive was carried out on 104 bighas of land in Daag no. 733 in Haidubi followed by Bhomoraguri Kismat. In these areas, the encroachers occupied the satra land and built permanent houses and dug huge ponds, and started breeding fish.

Meanwhile, a section of people from the Jamaibasti in Bhomoraguri is deserted. For the last 25 years, they say, they have been paying rent against Patta 84 of Bhomoraguri's revenue. 

On the other hand, some of the encroachers said they had stayed on the evicted government land in Batadrava at the direction of former minister and local MLA Gautam Bora during the Congress regime. 

''The Congress has done a lot and the BJP has done away with it,'' they added.

In the meantime, a section of the encroachers are in a state of despair after the eviction and even after being evicted, such people have resolved not to move away from there to other places, but because they are landless, they will remain in this place even if there are tents.

It may be recalled that thousands of bighas of land in several villages of Batadrava, close to Batadrava, the holy birthplace of Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva and under Dhing revenue circle in the western region of Nagaon district, have long been encroached upon. 

Over the years, starting from one house to two houses, more than a million strangers gradually came and settled in places like Bhomoraguri Grazing Reserve, Lalunggaon, Haidubi, Sarkari Seed Palm, Rampur Satra, Balisatra, Kadamni, Kobaikata Satra.

The name Of Batadrava came into the limelight as a result of the gradual increase in anti-social activities like murder, rape, theft, dacoity, illegal drug trafficking, etc. in the areas of the newly illegally occupied people in places like Bhomoraguri Glazing Reserve, Lalunggaon, etc. 

As a result, the Batadrwa Thana Management Committee, the Botadrwa Regional Students' Union, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the Bhakat-Vaishnava, Satradhikar of The Batadrava Thana, etc. have been demanding the government to remove this encroached land.

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