In the second eviction drive within a week, the Assam government on Monday cleared 400 bighas (over 132 acres) of land in Barpeta district. Meanwhile, the local Congress MLA – Sherman Ali Ahmed was detained for demonstrating at the site.
The Baghbar Circle Officer – Sonbar Chutia asserted that the Barpeta district administration was supported by a strong contingent of security personnel, when it forcibly evicted 45 households from government-owned land in Satrakanara under Baghbar Assembly constituency.
“The exercise was carried out peacefully and no untoward incident has been reported. We cleared around 400 bighas of land from the encroachers,” he said.
Claiming that several households had relocated along the region following flood and erosion, the Congress MLA demanded that the evicted people be rehabilitated.
The first eviction drive was conducted at Batadrava in Nagoan district on December 19. During the two-day operation, over 5,000 alleged encroachers were evicted.
Bulldozers were used to demolish the houses of the alleged encroachers in Satrakanara on Monday. Additionally, several nearby trees were spotted being uprooted by the large machinery.
Holding placards, Ahmed sat on the ground in front of a bulldozer to stop the eviction. The police and civil administration urged him to move from the place, but he disregarded the request. The legislator was detained for obstructing public servants from discharging their responsibilities.
“He was later released and no case was registered against the MLA,” the officer said.
Condemning the eviction, Ahmed said in a Facebook post that the exercise in his constituency is “completely illegal, inhuman and against the constitutional provisions”.
Ahmed stated “During the time of late Dildar Rezza Sahab was a cabinet minister and in 1992 the then Congress government had allocated about 400 acres of land to an organization called ‘Big Farmers’ Samiti’ (the organization which is currently closed).”
“The land in which 25 families lost their land in the erosion of river are living. Almost 65 revenue villages in Baghbar constituency I represent have been affected by river erosion since independence and thousands of families have become homeless and landless. It was the constitutional responsibility and duty of the government to rehabilitate the families affected by the erosion but unfortunately they did not perform their duties. As a result, homeless and landless families are taking shelter wherever they can,” he added.
“My demand was a written assurance from the administration to rehabilitate the landless and homeless families within a period of one month, but alas, the administration paid no heed to my demand and detained me in violation of my rights of peaceful protest. Enough of Hitlerism!” said the opposition MLA.
The evicted families, mostly agrarian communities, said that they were cultivating mustard, potato, corn and other vegetables in the area.