Nagaon/Assam: An eviction drive was underway in Assam's Nagaon district on the second consecutive day on Sunday to clear encroachments from 5,962 bighas (nearly 798 hectares) of forest land, according to a report by PTI.
Around 1,700 families have been affected in the drive.
Although the govt claims the lands were encroached, there were houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), water connection under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Anganwadi centres and government schools under Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), sub-health centre under National Health Mission (NHM) and electricity connections to almost every household, besides markets and mosques.
The second and final day of the massive eviction drive started at Lutumari Reserve Forest in the morning after completion of around 70 per cent of the demolition work on Saturday, a senior official said.
Nagaon District Commissioner Devashish Sharma and Senior Superintendent of Police Swapnanil Deka are supervising the eviction drive in the presence of Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Suhas Kadam.
"More than 75 per cent of the encroachers have left. Yesterday, we carried out eviction in around 70 per cent of the land where 1,700 families were residing," the official said.
The evicted people are taking shelter at rented accommodations and relatives' houses, and also themselves establishing relief camps in the nearby revenue villages, he added.
The district administration engaged several hundred security personnel and used dozens of excavators along with scores of tractors during the eviction exercise.