GUWAHATI, July 18: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday claimed that people from as far as Manipur are coming to encroach land in the state, and affirmed his government’s commitment to clear all areas under illegal possession, including forest land.
He also maintained that there is a ‘design’ in these encroachments, where a handful of people first migrate to an area, start cultivation and soon bring others to start a major illegal settlement.
“In Lakhimpur, where we recently conducted an eviction drive, we found people from Manipur. Today, 12 families from Manipur and Nagaon (in Assam) had reached there. Perhaps, they were asked to come by the encroachers earlier, but they didn’t know that eviction had taken place in the meantime,” Sarma said at a press conference here.
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The district commissioner will send back these families, he added.
Sarma said that though many encroachers claim to be from Goalpara and neighbouring districts during eviction drives, they could be from West Bengal or even Bangladesh originally.
“Earlier, there was no system of stopping Bangladeshis from entering. Now we are keeping a strict vigil. Just yesterday, we caught 16 illegal Bangladeshis. It is possible that many of these encroachers were brought from Bangladesh,” he said.
He said the reason behind the suspicion that the encroachers are not from districts within the state is that most of them ‘vanish’ within 30-45 days.
The chief minister said there is a ‘pattern’ in which the encroachment is started.
Citing an example of Lumding, where his government had carried out an eviction drive earlier, Sarma said, “We found large tracts of ginger cultivation. First, a few people come to an area and earmark it. Then they bring in more people and start cultivation.”
A similar pattern of undertaking betel nut cultivation in Uriamghat in Golaghat district, or rubber plantation in Sribhumi and Hailakandi districts have been observed, he said.
Noting that the government is preparing for an eviction drive in Uriamghat, Sarma said it will take four-five months as legal procedures have to be followed and in this case, Nagaland also has to be informed as it is along the inter-state border.
He said in Uriamghat, thousands of bighas of land have been encroached, with about 500 families taking over an entire forest.
Mostly from Dhing and Lahorighat areas in central Assam, each encroacher family has grabbed 300-500 bighas of land there and undertaken betel nut cultivation.
Showing a video of the cultivations, Sarma said, “The Myanmar ‘supari’ (dried betel nut) comes up to Uriamghat. Here it is mixed with some local supari and then passed off as local produce.”
Asked on action against officials who allowed such encroachment, he said, “I am told three forest rangers were there and they were the same as these people. I will take action, that’s why I am the chief minister.”
He added that not just officials, but also local politicians, don’t do anything about the illegal settlements once the population reaches 5,000-10,000 as it becomes a vote bank.
The chief minister had said on Tuesday that 1,19,548 bighas (160 sq km) of land have been cleared of encroachment since his government took over in May 2021, affecting about 50,000 people.
He added that another 63 lakh bighas, including 29 lakh bighas of forest land, are still under encroachment in the state.
He had claimed that the alleged encroachers are people of ‘one religion’ and said the indigenous communities of the state are facing ‘invasion’ from these people.
Though Sarma did not specify, most of the evicted people are Bengali-speaking Muslims. (PTI)
