Assam government evicts 299 families encroaching government land, to set up solar plant

On September 3, the Assam government evicted 299 families who had illegally encroached 900 bighas of government land in Barchalla under Sonitpur district, on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra river. Around 50 excavators, tractors, and other heavy machinery were engaged in this massive eviction drive, which began at 6 in the morning. The government is likely to set up a solar power plan in the area where the demolition happened.
 
Among the evicted families, 54 were Bangla-speaking Hindus and the rest were Bangla-speaking Muslims. While most of the families moved to other two parts of Chitalmari—No 1 and No 2, the government will rehabilitate the landless families among the evictees. “The government will conduct a survey to find out the number of landless families among them and then a decision will be taken regarding rehabilitation,” Deba Prasad Mishra, Deputy Commissioner of Sonitpur told India Today NE.  

 On September 2, the Gauhati High Court, responding to a writ petition filed by 13 evictees seeking stay on the eviction drive, declined to offer any relief but granted them the opportunity to file a fresh petition within 3 days seeking rehabilitation or alternative plot of land from the government. “…since the petitioner are admittedly occupying government land, they cannot claim any right to continue to occupy the land…however, an eviction drive of this nature, without providing alternate shelter/lad would undoubtedly have an element of violation of basic human rights,” observed the court.

As per sources, before the demolition was carried out, people had already started evacuating their homes after the district administration had sent out a notice to the affected families seven months ago. The district administration also held several rounds of dialogues with the alleged encroachers and convinced them to leave the government land. That’s why most villagers were gone by the time the district administration rolled in their bulldozers. “The families started their preparation for evacuation three days ago,” Sonitpur District SP Susanta Biswa Sarma told India Today NE.
 
Among these families, those who had land in other areas, either moved to their original locations or shifted to other two zones of Chitalmari. “Some of these families, who are from Dhing and Moirabari, came here for agricultural purposes. These people may have relatives in the other two zones of Chitalmari. That’s why they may have gone there,” says DC Mishra. He also added that the encroachers had already harvested and taken away major chunks of their jute crop. A week’s time has been given to these people to harvest the rest under the strict scrutiny of security personnel.
 
This was the first time that an eviction drive was carried out peacefully in the state. Nearly a year ago, on September 23, 2021, an eviction drive carried out in neighbouring Darrang district turned violent when a group of evictees attacked police personnel. Two persons died in retaliatory police firing while 20 were injured. The image of a local photographer kicking the body of an evictee, shot dead by police force, led to national outrage.