Nagaon: About 100 families were displaced as the Assam government on Friday cleared alleged encroachment from a government plot in Nagaon district, PTI reported.
The drive was carried out on 38 bighas (nearly 13 acres) of land in Bhakatgaon in Samaguri, District Commissioner Devashish Sharma said.
He said about 100 families were occupying these 38 bighas of government land since the 1990s.
"After getting the notices around 15 days back, around 90 per cent of families vacated the place. The remaining occupants left today, and the area was cleared from encroachment," he said.
The DC also said the administration will continue such eviction drives in the coming days to clear encroachments.
"This is just the beginning, and we will clear all encroached land in Nagaon district during the coming days. After today's eviction at Bhakatgaon, the next phase will be in Salanibari, Ahom Gaon, Tuktuki, Roumari Beach, Mairadhwaj, Bechamari, Shalmabari and Akharbari Gelekni Beach," he said.
Since the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government came to power in 2021, it has carried out a series of evictions to clear government and forest land from alleged encroachments, mostly affecting the Bengali-speaking Muslim population.
On November 3, the CM asserted that eviction drives to clear encroachments will continue and "illegal Miyas" cannot have peace under his government.
'Miya' is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam, and the non-Bengali-speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants. In recent years, activists from the community have started adopting this term as a gesture of defiance.