Historic SC order paves way to carry out eviction drives in forest lands

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: Owing to a Supreme Court order on Tuesday, Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma today said that the way has now been cleared to carry out eviction drives on forest lands. Now, district-level committees will be formed with the District Commissioner as chairman and members comprising Forest Department officials, he said.

The Chief Minister termed the Supreme Court’s order a “historic” judgement. He stated that encroachers can now be evicted from the approximately 20 lakh bighas of forest land in the state that is yet to be cleared.

Addressing a press conference in Guwahati today, the CM said that so far 1,25,362 bigha forest land have been cleared of encroachment, but a few individuals approached the Supreme Court (SC) to pray for a check on the state government’s power to evict encroachers from forest land. That is the reason that eviction drives couldn’t be carried out in the remaining forest land under encroachment until now.

The CM further said that a division bench of the SC comprising Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha on February 10 made a landmark decision that if forest land is under encroachment, the state government is empowered to carry out eviction drives. On the basis of the SC order, the Assam government has decided to form district-level committees comprising the District Commissioner as the chairman and forest department officials as members. The committees will issue notices to the encroachers of land considered to be forest land. If any encroacher who is issued such a notice feels the land is not forest land but revenue land, he will have the right to approach the committee. The committee will examine the claim of the encroacher and determine whether the specific land is forest or not. Finally, the committee will issue a speaking order and will carry out eviction within 15 days if it’s forest land.

In case it’s revenue land, the revenue department will take necessary steps.

The CM further said, “There were six cases of encroachment on forest land pending in the SC. Yesterday, the SC made a ‘historic’ judgement and disposed of the six cases. The Gauhati High Court had earlier issued a directive to give one month’s time, but now the SC has reduced the timeline to 15 days to carry out eviction drives. The SC order also says that even if the encroached forest land falls in a panchayat area, the state government can carry out an eviction drive on such land. The district-level committees to be formed will have the District Commissioner as chairman, the DFO as the member secretary, and the additional district commissioner (revenue), a forest range officer and a local circle officer will serve as members. The terms and reference of the committees will be notified soon.”

The Chief Minister, however, clarified that indigenous people dwelling on forest land will be provided forest rights as per the Forest Right Act. “Now, drives to grant forest-dwelling rights to the indigenous communities and to carry out evictions in forest areas will be conducted simultaneously,” the CM added.

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