Under tight security, Assam govt uses battery of bulldozers to evict squatters

GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Saturday evicted 299 families squatting on about 1,000 bighas of government land at a riverine area (char) in Sonitpur district for setting up a 100-MW solar power project.
The district administration used multiple bulldozers to carry out the evictions in the presence of a massive contingent of armed security personnel at No. 3 Sitolmari village under Borsola assembly constituency.
The administration has left two mosques and jute fields untouched for now. "We have asked the people to dismantle the mosques themselves and harvest the jute in next seven to 10 days," an official said. The eviction drive was incident-free and there was no law and order situation, the official added.
"These families had been illegally occupying the government land for several years. The eviction notices were issued to them well in advance," the official said.
More than half of the families had packed their belongings and left for their native places after receiving the eviction notice about eight months ago. They had come from different parts of the state, mostly from Morigaon and Hojai.
Asked about the demography of the area, a district official said, "It is a mix of several communities. Most families are Bengali-speaking Muslims, followed by Bengali Hindus and Gorkhas."
The state government's first eviction drive at Dholpur in Darrang district in September last year had turned violent, resulting in the death of two civilians in police firing when villagers attacked policemen and district administration officials.