Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: Over 4.47 lakh families have erected houses illegally on government lands in the state. Evicting these families from the government lands is a big challenge for the government now.
According to sources, the unchecked encroachment of government land has reduced the area that is reserved in the interest of public and ecological balance. Most of the encroachers who have erected houses on government lands own lands elsewhere in the state. Of course, a section of them are people rendered landless due to erosion and other natural calamities. These encroachers also include a section comprising politicians, businessmen, brokers, government officials and the like.
From time to time, the Gauhati High Court orders the district commissioners to evict encroachers from government lands. Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma also made a public statement in December 2021 that his government would make the government lands free from encroachment. Despite that, the state still has such a large number of families on government lands.
According to sources, in the past few years, the state government carried out eviction drives and freed lands from encroachers. The problem lies in the fact that eviction drives need a lot of preparations and resources, besides the hue and cry from the people being evicted. This has made the government not carry out eviction drives in many areas where it should have.
The state government had no data, like a land bank, etc., ascertaining the areas of its land lying unused in the past. That led to rampant encroachment of government lands in the state. Of late, with the state government specifying government lands through the floating of the land bank, things regarding its lands have become clear.
The state government enacted the Assam Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2010. Section 3 of this Act states that 'land grabbing in any form is unlawful, and any act connected with or arising out of land grabbing shall be a cognisable offence'. The government is carrying out eviction drives, especially in urban areas, under this act.
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