Goalpara

An eviction drive to clear encroachment of around 135 hectares of land in the Paikan Reserve Forest in Assam's Goalpara district started on Saturday morning, officials said.

The drive has been peaceful so far with 40 excavators and heavy security deployment in place, they said.

“The eviction drive began in the morning. It has been going on smoothly. Senior district and police officers are overseeing the operation,” an official said.

Goalpara District Commissioner (DC) Khanindra Choudhury had told PTI on Friday that about 95 per cent of alleged illegal settlers have already moved out from the area, dismantling their establishments.

The eviction drive, which was scheduled to be carried out on Friday, was postponed by a day, keeping in mind the Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority area, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said.

Goalpara Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Tejas Mariswamy had said earlier that the eviction drive would clear encroachment on around 135 hectares in the Paikan Reserve Forest of the Krishnai Range.

"There are 1,080 families who have encroached on forest land, and we had asked them to vacate the area in November-December last year. We again served them notices last month to vacate the area by July 10," he had said.

Since 2023, the administration has cleared encroachments on 650 hectares of land across four forest ranges.

"Of this, human habitation was in 200 hectares and farming was done in the remaining 450 hectares," Mariswamy had said.

Encroachments on nearly 1,160 acres, affecting close to 1,100 families, in Charuwa Bakra, Chirakuta and Santoshpur villages under the Chapar circle in neighbouring Dhubri district were cleared during a drive on Tuesday.

The anti-encroachment exercise was undertaken to hand over land to the Adani Group for setting up a power plant.

Alleged encroachers had earlier damaged excavators and tried to attack police personnel during the eviction drive, prompting security forces to resort to a baton charge to disperse the mob.

Last month, Sarma had visited the site for the proposed power plant, and announced that a 3,400-MW thermal power facility would be established there.

Sarma, during a press conference in Guwahati on Thursday, had asserted that eviction drives would continue in the state, with over 25,000 acres of land having been cleared of encroachment in the last four years.

"We will have another eviction drive on Saturday in Goalpara. The Gauhati High Court has asked us to clear forest land. It said that we should provide drinking water and other essential items to the evicted people," he added.

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The Congress, however, has criticised the eviction drives, and asserted that all Indian citizens, who have been evicted from land during the BJP rule, will be compensated if the opposition party comes to power in the state.