Massive eviction drive in Darrang, 8,000 bighas of govt land cleared

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MANGALDAI: Finally the State government, on Monday, carried out a never before seen massive eviction drive at Dhalpur No. 1 and Dhalpur No. 3 areas under the Sipajhar Revenue Circle in Darrang district to evict encroachers from government land. Till this evening, the district administration cleared 8,000 bighas of encroached land and evicted 800 numbers of encroachers without facing any protest or resistance from the encroachers.

Significantly, the eviction drive was conducted in a pre-planned manner. Meanwhile, good numbers of encroachers were seen peacefully leaving the encroached land.

In the first-ever major eviction drive conducted today, Inspector General of Police (Law & Order) Dipak Kedia, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Central Western Range Brajenjit Singha and Superintendent of Police Er Sushanta Biswa Sarma led a large contingent of Assam Police, paramilitary forces, and the SDRF numbering more than 1200 to assist the district administration in carrying out the eviction drive. Deputy Commissioner Prabhati Thaosen assisted by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Pankaj Deka, Additional Deputy Commissioner Pallabi Kachari, CEO of Darrang Zila Parishad Ramen Malakar and other officials personally supervised the eviction drive from 7 am to 6 pm using a good number of excavators and tractors.

Mention may be made here that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during his visit to Gorukhuti in Darrang district on June 7, had committed to evict the encroachers from 77,420 bighas of government land and to engage the indigenous unemployed youths in carrying out multi-layer cropping adopting the organic way of farming.

The Assam Government constituted 'Project Gorukhuti' taking Sootea legislator Padma Hazarika as its Chairman and Mangaldai Parliamentarian Dilip Saikia, legislators Paramananda Rajbongshi of Sipajhar and Mrinal Saikia of Khumtai as the members of the Project.

Further, the State government sanctioned Rs 9.60 crore to the 'Project Gorukhuti', and also accorded the rank and status of Cabinet Minister to Padma Hazarika.

Significantly, the Chairman of 'Project Gorukhuti' — Padma Hazarika, Parliamentarian Dilip Saikia and legislator Mrinal Saikia camped in the Gorukhuti area to monitor the eviction drive. However, local Legislator Paramananda Rajbongshi was not seen in the Gorukhuti area today.

"We are in no way involved with the legal process of eviction drive to evict the encroachers from the government land. The eviction drive has been carried out by the district administration. But as we have been entrusted with the 'Project Gorukhuti' we will start cultivation in the land handed over by the government. Today we have engaged 22 numbers of tractors to till the land" said Chairman of 'Project Gorukhuti' Padma Hazarika while talking to 'The Sentinel' this afternoon at Gorukhuti.

He also made it clear that the government is not against any community or religion, adding that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma-led State government is committed to free the encroached government only to make the way for engaging the indigenous unemployed youth in scientific agriculture. The eviction drive will be continued tomorrow.

Mention may be made here that during the eviction drive, the district administration took every care of the women and children. Two weekly and daily markets were also demolished during the eviction drive.

Also Read: Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Conducts Eviction Drive, Declares 'No Vending Zone'

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