An eviction drive to clear over 87 acres of grazing land in Assam’s Biswanath district was carried out by the administration on Sunday, affecting more than 360 families, an official said.He said the exercise was conducted peacefully.
Biswanath district Commissioner Lakhinandan Saharia said the eviction began around 7 am in the Baghmari area under the Behali Assembly constituency.
Eviction notices were issued to 435 families allegedly encroaching about 265 bighas (87.45 acres) of Village Grazing Reserve (VGR) in the area in August this year. VGR refers to tracts of land set aside for livestock grazing.
The process was stopped as 68 families approached the Gauhati High Court against the administration’s notice, the DC said.“Today, the eviction was carried out in the land encroached by the remaining 367 families,” he said.About 20 excavators were pressed into service while heavy security deployment made in the area to ensure peaceful eviction.An alleged encroacher, Alap Uddin Haji, who lost his house, claimed that they did not know that it was VGR land that his family had been occupying.“We have been living here since my father’s time. We have nowhere to go now,” he said.Haji also claimed that he had been trying to secure the rights of the land for several years, but the authorities had not informed him of the actual status of the land.
