Another eviction drive in Assam, 3,300 families were displaced in the month. Bharat News

Fifth of the state Bicker drive within a monthMeditation Pikan was in the reserve forest area Golpara district On Saturday. According to Golpara Divisional Forest Officer Tejas Mariswami, the drive demanded the removal of 1,080 families that encroached on 140 hectares of forest land.

With this, more than 3,300 families-most of the Bengali-origin Muslims-have been displaced in several districts including Dhubri, Lakhimpur, Nalpri and Golpara in several districts in just one month. Officials have claimed that the evicies were encroaching on the government/ forest/ panchayat land.

During the eviction drive in Golpara on Saturday. (Photo: Sukrita Barua)

Like previous exercises, Saturday’s eviction drive, also, was a large -scale case. The total area was divided into six blocks and six bulldozers working in each block, a total of 36 bulldozers – and one and four in the reserve. Security personnel including armed police commandos were spread across the region. Golpara Superintendent of Police Nabneet Mahata said that about 1,000 personnel including forest conservation forces were deployed on the ground.

Like Rokibul, other affected families also removed the roofs of tin of their homes and snatched all their belongings in the days before eviction.

“We snatched all our belongings yesterday, we have kept them at the house of a relative in Jambari (a nearby settlement), but we have spent the night with a torpulin sheet serving as a roof here at night. Tonight, we might have to pitch a tarpulin sheet somewhere on the road. Let’s see what the officials will be allowed,” Rakibul said.

Now for about a month, the residents of the area were living under the shadow of eviction.

Sheikh Raju Ahmed (23) said that he was told for the first time that he should be released by June 27. “From June 18, the announcements that we were built 2-3 times on a loudspeaker, telling us to leave. For about 20 days, the police and other forces are dying here, and vacated their homes in the last two days.

During the eviction drive in Golpara on Saturday. (Photo: Sukrita Barua)

In Jambari Basti, almost every household is being used to store the goods of evicted families. Samesh Ali (28) said that seven families had kept their belongings in their house. He said, “They have kept their things, but there is no place for them to live here, so they might have to install tents somewhere,” he said.

While the residents of the affected area have claimed that their families had previously bought properties from Garo residents as ‘revenue land’, they were unable to secure to stay on eviction drive from Gauhati High Court. On the other hand, forest officials and district administration say that to reduce the struggle of human-hand, the forest land is being evicted in compliance with the directions of the High Court to clean the forest land.

While there have been cases of eviction that faced resistance in Assam – some people tamped up stones on bulldozers and faced police baton in Dhubri earlier this week; Last year, two protesters were shot dead after a confrontation with the police in Sonpur – only one resignation was given on Saturday.

But there was more nervousness and fear. A resident, Fauzul Hoke, was taken for medical treatment, when he was trying to hang himself before his house was demolished.

“No one is going to fight here. Everyone is afraid what may happen. Even if you cry, it does not mean that your house will be spared. And if you try to challenge, you can pay with your life. We can’t do anything about it,” Shah Jahan Ali said.

While in recent years, eviction drives have become common in Assam-In 2021 elections, the ruling BJP promised to free the government land of “encroachers” and allocate the “indigenous landless people” to the areas-the existence has intensified in the last month.

With less than a year of time elections, he has taken the form of a hot election political issue. While Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed earlier this week that the government is restoring demographics at places where she is operating eviction, in the context of the population of Bengali-origin Muslims, Congress MP Rakibul Hussain has claimed that if the people coming to power in the state have been compensated, the Congress has filed a compensation.

On Saturday, a delegation from AIUDF-whose main support among the Bengali-origin Muslims is the basis for the nestling site, but was stopped by the local authorities.

Meanwhile, even after their houses were bulldozed, the residents continued to sit with the rubble in the heat of July. “We have nowhere to go. We have got a torpulin sheet, we will put it on this evening. But the authorities have removed the electric transmitter, destroyed the water lines and even the wells that used to do in our premises are particularly concerned about how to take care of the children,” Said Mafidul Ismal (31).