Guwahati: The MLAs of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) on December 20 staged a protest against a government-ordered eviction in the Nagaon district of Assam.
Moreover, they assembled in front of the Assembly to voice their opposition to the eviction. Suspended Congress MLA Sherman Ali joined them and spoke out in favour of the AIUDF MLAs who were protesting.
While speaking to reporters, Dhing MLA Aminul Islam said, “The eviction is not supported at all. The government has allowed some people to apply for land titles and chased away a section of them. It is biased and we strongly oppose it.”
“How can I accept if we evict the Indian people? Will they accept these people when they call them Bangladeshis? The government is biasing these solely for Nagpur. The ruling party has done this eviction in the interest of Nagpur and not in the interest of the people of Assam,” he added.
Notably, the eviction drive has started on public land at Batadrava, the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva, the Vaishnavite saint of Assam.
A large team of Assam police officers have been camped out in Batadrava for the past few days in order to evict residents who are residing on public property.
Finally, on December 19, government land occupants were forcibly removed, and buildings were razed with the use of excavators in front of senior district administration officials.
Several residents have threatened to remain at the eviction site although the eviction in Batadrava has been peaceful so far.
Meanwhile, a section of people from the Jamaibasti in Bhomoraguri is deserted. For the last 25 years, they say, they have been paying rent against Patta 84 of Bhomoraguri’s revenue.
On the other hand, some of the encroachers said they had stayed on the evicted government land in Batadrava at the direction of former minister and local MLA Gautam Bora during the Congress regime.
”The Congress has done a lot and the BJP has done away with it,” they added.
In the meantime, a section of the encroachers are in a state of despair after the eviction and even after being evicted, such people have resolved not to move away from there to other places, but because they are landless, they will remain in this place even if there are tents.
It may be recalled that thousands of bighas of land in several villages of Batadrava, close to Batadrava, the holy birthplace of Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva and under Dhing revenue circle in the western region of Nagaon district, have long been encroached upon.
Over the years, starting from one house to two houses, more than a million strangers gradually came and settled in places like Bhomoraguri Grazing Reserve, Lalunggaon, Haidubi, Sarkari Seed Palm, Rampur Satra, Balisatra, Kadamni, Kobaikata Satra.
The name Of Batadrava came into the limelight as a result of the gradual increase in anti-social activities like murder, rape, theft, dacoity, illegal drug trafficking, etc. in the areas of the newly illegally occupied people in places like Bhomoraguri Glazing Reserve, Lalunggaon, etc.
As a result, the Batadrwa Thana Management Committee, the Botadrwa Regional Students’ Union, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the Bhakat-Vaishnava, Satradhikar of The Batadrava Thana, etc. have been demanding the government to remove this encroached land.