Massive eviction drive in Assam’s Uriamghat displaces 1,500 Muslim families amid protests

A massive eviction drive to clear alleged encroachments on nearly 1,500 hectares of forest land in Assam's Golaghat district continued for the fifth consecutive day on August 2.

The eviction drive, once completed, will displace around 1,500 families, mostly from the Muslim community.

The exercise started on Tuesday for clearing the alleged encroached land in the Rengma Reserve Forest in Uriamghat along the Assam-Nagaland border in Sarupathar sub-division.

Although the government has claimed that the area was encroached, senior officials acknowledged that there were houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), water connection under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), government schools under Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), a sub-health centre under National Health Mission (NHM) and electricity connections to almost every household, besides markets, mosques, madrassas and churches.

"Today, the eviction drive started at Bidyapur and No. 2 Madhupur locations from around 10 am. So far, the exercise has been peaceful," a district administration official told PTI.

Additionally, the forest department will start a survey of land in Rajapukhuri, Gelajan, Madhupur, Rana Nagar, Haldibari and Hatidubi areas, he added.

The major eviction drive, which entered its fifth day on Saturday, has so far cleared encroachments on more than 8,000 bighas (nearly 1,100 hectares) of forest land in the Rengma Reserve Forest, an official release said on Friday.

The district administration official claimed that around 10,500 bighas to 11,000 bighas of land were encroached upon by the people.

"Around 2,000 families are living in those areas. Out of them, notices were served to about 1,500 families, who illegally settled here. The remaining families are forest dwellers and have certificates from the Forest Rights Committee (FRC)," he added.

The families whose houses are being demolished belong to the Muslim community, while those having FRC certificates are from Bodo, Nepali, Manipuri and other communities, the official said.

"Around 80 per cent of the families who had received notices have already vacated their illegal settlements in the last few days. We are only demolishing their homes," he said.

The operation was led by the Forest Department with active support from the Golaghat District Administration and the Assam Police in close coordination with the Government of Nagaland and the Nagaland Police.

To ensure smooth and peaceful execution of the operation, an extensive security arrangement was put in place with the involvement of the central force, CRPF.

While speaking to PTI, the affected families, however, earlier questioned the rationale of the eviction drive and claimed that they were brought to this location by the earlier governments to protect the area from the invasion of Nagaland.

They claimed that most of the alleged encroachers' previous generation was settled in the forest by the Janata Party government, headed by ex-CM Golap Borbora, in 1978-79 and the first AGP government, which came to power in 1985.

The government-run Bidyapur LP School was established in 1978, according to the signboard on the school building.

This supports the public claim that there were people living in the area from around 1975.

All the government schools in the alleged encroached area have been converted into forest camps before the start of the eviction drive.

Notably, the assembly was informed in March that almost 83,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam were being occupied by four neighbouring states, and Nagaland captured the highest amount of land in Assam - 59,490.21 hectares.

The encroached area, as claimed by the government, was provided with electricity supply, schools, JJM water connections, health centres, ration cards and houses under PM Awas Yojana, among other benefits from the state.

When asked about these government infrastructure, a senior official of the Forest Department accepted that such facilities were provided by the authorities, and some of the installations came up even after 2016 when the BJP came to power for the first time in Assam.

There were also mosques and madrassas among the Muslim community, while churches were set up by the Bodo people.

For carrying out the eviction drive across 12 villages, the authorities have divided the entire area into nine zones. Notices were served by the forest department to the alleged encroachers, giving them seven days to vacate the place.

The Nagaland government issued an advisory to the bordering districts to keep a strict vigil so that displaced people cannot cross into the state in the event of the proposed eviction drive.

On July 25, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Uriamghat to inspect the areas that have been encroached upon and for which the state government had already issued eviction notices.

He said that nearly 70 per cent of the encroachers had vacated the land voluntarily, and those who had settled in the area came from various districts in Assam, such as Cachar, Sribhumi, Dhubri, Barpeta, Hojai, Nagaon and Morigaon, as well as from other states, including West Bengal and Bihar.

The CM stated that eviction notices had also been issued in the Negheribil area of Golaghat district and expressed hope that encroachers there would vacate the land in due course.