Massive Protests Against Silsako Eviction Drive Held

GUWAHATI: On Wednesday, thousands of affected families from the Silsako eviction drive demonstrated against the state government in Guwahati's Chachal area.

As the BJP government led by Himanta Biswa Sarma completed its first two years in office, hundreds of people who had been evicted from Silsako Beel marked "Black Day" by wearing black badges. The protesters have sought the return of their lands as well as the establishment of jobs.

Agitators asserted that if their demands are not met, they will escalate their protest.

One of the protestors said, “We will not allow any kind of government projects to be set up at Silsako. When our lands were evicted, CM Sarma guaranteed that all evicted families would be provided with compensation and rehabilitated. However, we have not received any response from the government. When the entire state was gripped with the festivities of Bohag Bihu, we were launching a hunger strike here to get back our lands. But, the government has till today turned a deaf ear to our sufferings. Therefore we have announced Assam BJP’s foundation day as ‘Black Day’ to protest against the government.”

“We want the government to look into the matter and provide us compensation. We pledge to sit in protests and further intensify them till all our demands are met. We will not leave our lands and let it go into the hands of any outsider. We also demand eviction to be stopped as soon as possible. It is actually a matter of shame that we are forced to stage a protest on the government’s foundation day," another protestor stated.

In the meanwhile, Silsako Beel's bioremediation process was launched by Ashok Singhal, the state of Assam's minister of housing, urban affairs, and irrigation, along with a demonstration of Bahini River diversion to Silsako Beel. The project proposes to redirect the Bahini River's flow to Silsako.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, the minister for Assam, has promised resettlement to families who had lived in Silsako before the Guwahati Water Bodies (Preservation and Conservation) Act of 2008 was passed.

Following a meeting on March 2 in Dispur between the chief minister and 19 Silsako development committees, a decision was made for resettlement but it was not done.

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