Assam begins drive to bulldoze over 600 homes in Goalpara district
The Assam government on Monday began its drive to demolish the homes of 667 families, the majority of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, in an anti-encroachment drive in the Goalpara district.
Goalpara District Commissioner Khanindra Choudhury told Scroll that 45% of the homes on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel area were razed on Monday. The demolition drive will continue on Tuesday to clear the remaining structures, he added.
“There was no resistance from the encroachers and no untoward incident has been reported so far,” PTI quoted Choudhury as saying.
The official claimed that the district administration had served eviction notices to the villagers in 2023 and 2024, instructing them to vacate the “wetland area”.
“We again served them notices on Friday and asked them to clear their houses by Monday morning,” PTI quoted Choudhury as saying.
Many residents left the village with their belongings, while the remaining families have requested that the district administration rehabilitate them.
Goalpara East MLA AK Rasheed Alam also wrote to the district commissioner on Monday, demanding rehabilitation for those being evicted.
He also claimed that the families have been residing in the area for nearly 70 years.
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have...
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