Assam CM Himanta claims land grabbing is a political tool being used to alter demography

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday furthered his claims of a conspiracy being hatched to alter the demography of certain regions of Assam. He asserted that people are moving from over 300Km areas from lower Assam or from Bangladesh, to encroach land in other constituencies. He claimed that this operation has been going on for several decades now.

While Speaking to Republic Media Network on the deliberate issue of the ongoing eviction drives in Assam, the BJP leader said that a huge nexus of people are working deliberately to deprive local Assamese of their political rights and land rights. He claimed that the encroachment of the land is being used as a political tool, to hatch a bigger conspiracy in the state. 

Land grabbing is a political tool being used to alter demography: Assam CM

He further claimed that “People occupying the govt land have either migrated from Bangladesh or different revenue circles of Assam. They have captured acres of land unofficially at different places, and in the process, they have pushed the natives of indigenous communities, away, grabbing their resources.”

Himanta continued to explain further and asserted that Sipajhar has been targeted for several decades and it is the classic example of what is happening in several other areas of the state. 

“Sipajhar is also a classic example of the same issue where people from lower Assam, from as far as 300km away, migrated to upper Assam and moved the natives to capture the government’s land illegally. They are not the actual owners of the land, they gradually settle down on the encroached land areas and register themselves in the new constituencies, gradually making the Assamese people, the minority community in the area. This is not a small scale issue, there is a big nexus of people involved in the whole modus operandi. This has been happening over 2-3 decades now.”

6000 people were unable to produce identity certificates during NRC: Himanta 

Talking about the eviction drive being conducted in Sipajhar, Assam CM said, “These people are concentrated in three assembly constituencies of Assam-- Sipajhar, Lumding and Borholla. Due to the support of left-liberals, these issues are escalating. These people who have encroached the land in the Gorukhuti village don’t have their erosion certificates, more so when NRC was conducted, 6,000 out of 10,000 people were unable to produce their identity certificates.”

Gorukhuti, Sipajhar eviction drive 

The eviction drive in Gorukhuti village on September 23 was followed by another drive in the Sipajhar area last week, during which, 800 families comprising about 5,000 people were vacated. Violent clashes took place between local people and police, which resulted in the death of two people and injury to 15 policemen during the eviction drive at Gorukhuti.

Image: PTI