Assam: Sonitpur administration carries out massive eviction drive on 2000 bighas of land

A massive eviction drive is being carried out in Sonitpur’s Burhasapari area where the local administration along with a huge police force are engaged in clearing out encroached areas on 2000 bighas of land.

Several bighas of land is being cleared of encroachments with houses demolished and hectares of vegetable fields destroyed.

As per reports, the people who had illegally encroached on the area were served notices before the eviction drive. Most of the families had already left the area following receiving the notice.

Several bull dozers, JCBs were brought for the eviction drive as hectares of land, houses were destroyed. 
A similar eviction drive was carried at Batadrawa, Nagaon on December 19, 2022. 
A significant number of security personnel were deployed during the eviction drive.

In four villages in the district, encroached government lands were cleared as a result of the eviction drive.
The Nagaon SP reported that the locals were cooperative because more than 80 per cent of them removed their homes, businesses, and other structures and left.

It needs mention here, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on January 15 said that the Assam government has cleared encroachment from almost 90 per cent area of the Pabha Reserve Forest in Lakhimpur district. 

The administration started the eviction drive to clear encroachment on January 10 which continued for several days, to evict around 500 "illegal settler" families.

"Our commitment to preserve our natural resources is sacrosanct. Happy to share that after 5 days of eviction exercise 4,163 ha (32,000 bigha) of Pabha Reserve Forest freed from encroachers," CM Sarma said in a tweet.The total area of the reserve forest is estimated to be 4,625.85 hectares, he added.
The Chief Minister also lauded efforts of the administration in their endeavour to conserve Assam's forest cover.

Also read : Assam: Encroachers return back to re-construct houses on evicted land in Nagaon