- By Shubham Bajpai
- Sun, 09 Nov 2025 03:39 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Assam government on Sunday resumed the demolition of alleged encroachment on the 376 hectares (1,140 bighas) of forest land in Goalapar district, evicting 580 families who are on the verge of losing their homes.
Speaking about the demolition drive, Goalpara District Commissioner ProdipTimung said the exercise was going "on peacefully" to clear the encroached area in Dahikata Reserve Forest.
"There were 580 families who had encroached on 1,140 bighas of land. The notices were issued to them more than 15 days ago to vacate the areas," news agency PTI quoted Timung as saying.
Timung emphasised that around 70 per cent of the "illegal settlers" in the area have already left the place after the notices were issued to them. The remaining, he said, were in the process of vacating their houses.
He added that the administration is hoping to complete the eviction drive today itself, which was expected to last for two days. "Though we had set two days for the eviction drive, the administration hopes to complete the exercise today. So far, we have not received any resistance. We are demolishing the remaining houses on the encroached land," he added.
The drive has also come under criticism as the government has claimed that the land had been under the clutches of alleged illegal Bangladeshi migrants.
On November 3, Assam Chief Minister HimantaBiswaSarma asserted that eviction drives will continue and "illegal Miyas" cannot have peace under his government.
'Miya' is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam, and the non-Bengali-speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants.
However, the affected population has raised question of the demolition and eviction, claiming that they have lived at the places for decades.
PTI cited Abdul Karim, one of the affected people, claiming that the people in the area have been living there for several decades.
"If we were encroachers, why did the government give us electricity lines, toilets and other facilities? We have Aadhaar cards and all land documents, but still we are being treated as outsiders," he said.
The eviction drive on the encroached land in Assam has been going on since 2021, and most of the affected come from the Bengali-speaking Muslim community.
On July 21, CM Sarma said that 1.29 lakh bighas (over 42,500 acres) of land have been cleared of encroachment in the last four years, and around 29 lakh bighas (more than 9.5 lakh acres) of land are still encroached in the state.
(With PTI Inputs)