Eviction drive to free 400 bighas from encroachers in Barpeta district

 MLA detained for four hours for 'obstruction'

OUR BUREAU

GUWAHATI/BARPETA: The Barpeta District Administration started a massive eviction drive to clear around 400 bighas of government land from encroachers amidst protests from the local MLA on Monday.

The administration carried out the eviction drive in the Baghbar Satrakanara area in the Barpeta district, where the administration evicted 40 families today. The administration gave 15 days' time for the encroachers to harvest their paddy cultivated on the encroached land. The government had allotted 400 bighas of land to the 'Baghbar Bodo Krishak Sammittee'. The administration deployed adequate security personnel to carry out the eviction drive. When the eviction began, suspended Congress MLA Sherman Ali squatted in front of the bulldozer with placards and tried to obstruct the eviction process. The police detained him on the charge of obstructing the eviction derive and took him to the Barpeta police station. The police let him go after detention of four hours.

Barpeta Circle Officer Sunbar Chutia said, "The district administration has evicted around 45 families who illegally encroached upon the land of Satrakanara. Earlier, we had issued notice to them three times, besides issuing a public notice. The eviction drive was peaceful."

As and when the administration carries out eviction drives against encroachers belonging to the minority community, Congress and AIUDF MLAs create a hue and cry. They created an unruly situation during the recently-concluded winter session of the State Assembly against the eviction drive carried out near Bhatadrava Than in the Nagaon district. They try to justify such encroachment by projecting the encroachers as erosion-affected families.

However, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made it clear that if any encroacher turned out to be a genuine erosion-affected person, the government would provide him with the land. However, the government would never compromise with encroachments, he added.

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