Create community resistance to protect Assam, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma urges people

Dibrugarh: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday appealed to people to create community resistance to protect the state.

Sarma urged people to socially and economically boycott those who allegedly encroach on government land.

"We should not allow them to come. But if they are already there in some places of Upper Assam, then we will evict them from there as we did in Uriamghat," he told reporters here.

In August, the state government carried out a massive eviction drive at Rengma Reserve Forest in Uriamghat along the state's border with Nagaland, clearing around 11,000 bighas (nearly 1,500 hectares) of land from encroachments.

Around 1,800 families, mostly from the Muslim community, were affected in the drive.

"People should not give them rented accommodation and shelter. If they are provided with rented accommodation, then we cannot evict them," Sarma said.

He stressed that the government alone cannot make Assam "secure" and everyone has to contribute to that process.

"House owners should not let out, industrialists and contractors should not give jobs, people should not call unknown people to do farming on their lands -- in this way, a community resistance should be built," he said, without naming any community.