An Assam Congress MLA on Thursday attempted to stall the state government's anti-encroachment exercise for a brief period on the third and final day of the drive to clear nearly 1,900 hectares of forest and revenue land in Sonitpur district.
Though the legislator of Rupohihat, Nurul Huda, stopped the drive in Sitalmari area of Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuary for a while claiming it was illegal, the exercise resumed later, a senior official said.
The All India United Democratic Front said the government should carry out eviction drives after providing alternative arrangements for the landless people and these moves should not be made during winter.
Huda told reporters that the eviction in Sitalmari area was being “illegally carried out by the Sonitpur district administration as it falls under Nagaon district and no magistrate was present when bulldozers were razing the houses to the ground”.
The Congress leader said that as he did not want to create any disturbance in the area, he went alone without any party workers to Sitalmari where, he claimed, the residents have been paying land revenue to the state government since 1963.
“I have informed Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of the illegal work done by the Sonitpur administration and hope he will take suitable action,” Huda said.
The Congress had earlier claimed that many of the affected families are entitled to have land rights as per the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
On the last day, the eviction drive was carried out in three villages of Sitalmari under Siyali section of the BWS, the official added.
The eviction had begun on Tuesday amid heavy security of armed personnel, comprising state police and central paramilitary forces, to clear encroached land in the wildlife sanctuary and nearby revenue villages on the southern bank of Brahmaputra in central Assam.
Most of the affected people were Bengali-speaking Muslims and had left their houses after receiving notices in the last few weeks while the others vacated during the last two days of the eviction drive.
AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal on Thursday said that both the central and state governments have been told many times that they can take steps to evict those who have illegally occupied land, but alternative arrangements should also be made for the landless.
“All the evicted people are Indian citizens. As it is the government's duty to clear forest and government land, it is also its responsibility to provide them with homes,” Ajmal said.
The Dhubri MP said his party had told Parliament and the state assembly that it was inhuman to carry out eviction drives during the winter.
Sonitpur Deputy Commissioner Deba Kumar Mishra had earlier said that thousands of people had illegally occupied the forest and nearby areas for decades and the administration decided to clear 1,892 hectares during the exercise.
"Out of this, 1,401 hectares fall under the BWS and the remaining 491 hectares in government land. In the forest, 1,758 families were living, comprising 6,965 people," he added.
On the government land, 755 families were residing comprising 4,645 people as per the latest survey, the official said.
Mishra said, "We discovered that this area was never surveyed and people were in confusion if their villages fall under Nagaon or Sonitpur district. That is why government schools,
Anganwadi centres, mosques and other structures were built thinking it to be in Nagaon district."
After the eviction exercise is over, the Forest Department will start an afforestation drive and plant thousands of saplings, a forest official said.
Bura Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary is spread across 44.06 sq km on the southern bank of Brahmaputra. It is located around 180 km east of Guwahati and 40 km south of Tezpur town.
The drive in Bura Chapori is the fourth major eviction exercise in the state in the last two months with the drive in Nagaon's Batadrava on December 19 said to be the largest with more than 5,000 alleged encroachers forced to leave, followed by another exercise on December 26 to clear 400 bighas in Barpeta.
