Encroachers moving away of their own accord
Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The uncompromising eviction drives by the state government have led to many encroachers leaving the encroached lands on their own accord. Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma today reiterated that the eviction drives will not stop halfway through but will continue, nor will the government relent in the face of threats by anyone.
The state government's next target for eviction is Uriamghat and Negheribil on the Assam-Nagaland border area of the Golaghat district. In the past few days, the forest department and police departments have been carrying out drone surveys to determine encroached forest lands and gathering documents from families in the area by going house to house. Due to these efforts by the forest and police personnel, people are seen loading their belongings onto trucks and leaving the area.
Meanwhile, the CM, on the occasion of the fourth foundation day of the Gorukhuti project, said that if people think the government will stop after carrying out a few eviction drives, then they are wrong. "We are not afraid of intimidating stares, and the Assamese people will not bow down to anybody. They should realise that we will not allow the sacrifice of martyrs in the Assam Movement to go in vain," he asserted.
"If we compare the state's demographic change between 1951 and 2024, we will find that in the next ten years, the Assamese will become a minority in their own land. The aggressive illegal immigration has been going on for the past 100 years, and this will not stop easily. To put an end to this, we should be ready for a prolonged fight," the CM added.
Student organisations have also visited Uriamghat and Negheribil, and they have found that there is electricity , Anganwadi centres, houses built under PM Awas Yojana, good road connectivity, etc. They have demanded that action should be taken against officials who provided these facilities to encroachers. They also alleged that some leaders of the illegal migrants are in talks with people in neighbouring Nagaland. "We suspect that if the encroachers are evicted from the area, these Naga people may provide shelter and use them as labourers. The trend of engaging the illegal migrants as labourers for agricultural activities in disputed areas along the Assam-Nagaland border has been going on since long," they further stated.
Also Read: ANS Slams Dispur Over Evictions, Calls it Corporate Land Grab
Also Watch: