<p>Guwahati: Amid the eviction drive targetting the Bengali-speaking Muslims, BJP-led government in Assam on Tuesday ceremonially distributed land certificates to 4,673 forest dwelling families belonging to Bodo, Rabha, Karbi and Garo tribes in Kamrup district.</p><p><br>The land title certificates were handed over under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which, according to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, was not implemented in Assam till 2014.</p>.Assam government carries out eviction drive to clear 'encroachment' on 1,140 bigha forest land.<p>Formally handing over the documents at a function at Chaygaon, situted west of Guwahati, Sarma said the documents are being provided as per promise of the BJP to evict the "suspected people" from forests and offer land documents to the indigenous communities. </p><p>He said the process was almost final for similar distribution of land documents to another 5,000 indigenous families in Sonitpur and Biswanath in North Assam soon. </p><p>"Soon after becoming the CM in 2021, I instructed the DCs to take steps for giving land documents to our tribal communities living in forests. Accordingly, thousands have so far got land documents in Sonitpur, Nagaon, Karbi Anglond and Bodoland Territorial Region. Once our indigenous people took to agitation for land documents. Now, ee have two objectives, one is to evict the suspected Bangladeshis from our forests and second is to protect the land rights of our indigenous people by giving land documents."</p><p><strong>Evictions to continue </strong></p><p>The land documents were handed over a day after the state forest department bulldozed houses of 580 families belonging to Bengali-speaking Muslims from Dahikata reserve forest in neighbouring Goalpara district. </p><p>"We will make sure that no suspected person can stay in our forests and other government land. Because of encroachment by suspected Bangladeshis, our indigenous people in Goalpara and Kamrup are faced with threats of being minorities. They are settling in our forest citing that they lost their land in river erosion and flood. We must be alert about their designs and prevent settlement by any suspected Bangladeshis." </p><p>Sarma said 1.45 lakh bighas of land have been cleared so far from "suspected people" through evictions since 2021. "If we can stop them when one family comes and construct a house, we can prevent the problem from becoming so serious."</p><p>Later when asked by reporters about where will the evicted people go, Sarma said, "Let them go to where they came from. We will continue to evict them wherever they settled. After sometime, they will get tired but the government will never be tired. We will open the exit doors (borders) to allow them go back to Bangladesh. But we will keep the entry gates closed." </p>
<p>Guwahati: Amid the eviction drive targetting the Bengali-speaking Muslims, BJP-led government in Assam on Tuesday ceremonially distributed land certificates to 4,673 forest dwelling families belonging to Bodo, Rabha, Karbi and Garo tribes in Kamrup district.</p><p><br>The land title certificates were handed over under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which, according to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, was not implemented in Assam till 2014.</p>.Assam government carries out eviction drive to clear 'encroachment' on 1,140 bigha forest land.<p>Formally handing over the documents at a function at Chaygaon, situted west of Guwahati, Sarma said the documents are being provided as per promise of the BJP to evict the "suspected people" from forests and offer land documents to the indigenous communities. </p><p>He said the process was almost final for similar distribution of land documents to another 5,000 indigenous families in Sonitpur and Biswanath in North Assam soon. </p><p>"Soon after becoming the CM in 2021, I instructed the DCs to take steps for giving land documents to our tribal communities living in forests. Accordingly, thousands have so far got land documents in Sonitpur, Nagaon, Karbi Anglond and Bodoland Territorial Region. Once our indigenous people took to agitation for land documents. Now, ee have two objectives, one is to evict the suspected Bangladeshis from our forests and second is to protect the land rights of our indigenous people by giving land documents."</p><p><strong>Evictions to continue </strong></p><p>The land documents were handed over a day after the state forest department bulldozed houses of 580 families belonging to Bengali-speaking Muslims from Dahikata reserve forest in neighbouring Goalpara district. </p><p>"We will make sure that no suspected person can stay in our forests and other government land. Because of encroachment by suspected Bangladeshis, our indigenous people in Goalpara and Kamrup are faced with threats of being minorities. They are settling in our forest citing that they lost their land in river erosion and flood. We must be alert about their designs and prevent settlement by any suspected Bangladeshis." </p><p>Sarma said 1.45 lakh bighas of land have been cleared so far from "suspected people" through evictions since 2021. "If we can stop them when one family comes and construct a house, we can prevent the problem from becoming so serious."</p><p>Later when asked by reporters about where will the evicted people go, Sarma said, "Let them go to where they came from. We will continue to evict them wherever they settled. After sometime, they will get tired but the government will never be tired. We will open the exit doors (borders) to allow them go back to Bangladesh. But we will keep the entry gates closed." </p>