Assam: 50 families evicted in anti-encroachment drive at Goalpara's Pancharatna

A total of 50 families were evicted from Goalpara's Pancharatna as part of an anti-encroachment drive on Wednesday.

It may be recalled that around half a hundred families on either side of the State Highway 46 at Pancharatna, which passes through the Brahmaputra river from Goalpara town, had been issued notices a week ago by the forest department to demolish their houses.

Responding to the forest department's notice, a section of them have demolished their homes and taken shelter on the banks of the river. 

While a section of other families sent an appeal to the Gauhati High Court seeking a stay on the eviction. 

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The evicted families alleged that the forest department was discriminating against evictions as notice was sent to them only a week earlier. 

The evicted people condemned such eviction of the family who had been living for 50-60 years.

Meanwhile, Zakir Hussain, president of Goalpara District Students' Union, said that the evicted people are Indian citizens. So such inhuman eviction of Indian citizens should be stopped. 

He further demanded that the evicted landless families be rehabilitated at the earliest, otherwise, the student body threatened to launch agitation.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Tejas Mariswamy of Goalpara stated that notices had been served to the families, urging them to vacate the illegally occupied land due to which man-elephant conflict has gone up in recent days.

This eviction is part of a series of similar actions taken by the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government since May 2021.