'Encroached land equivalent to size of Chandigarh freed': Himanta on 'demographic invasion' in Assam

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said his government cleared more than 160 square kilometers of land from "illegal settlers" since he assumed office in 2021--a drive aimed to counter a "conspiracy for demographic invasion."

Sarma said the land cleared from the encroachers is equivalent to the size of Chandigarh.

"So far we have cleared over 40,000 acres of land which is a small portion of the land still under encroachments. Those evicted from our forests, wetlands, village grazing lands and other government land belong to a particular religion (Muslim). Most of them have houses in one district but they travelled to another district and occupied government land. Such trend has already changed the demography of lower and central Assam and they are spreading to North and Upper Assam districts gradually. There is a conspiracy for demographic invasion and thereby reduce the indigenous communities into minorities," Sarma told reporters in Guwahati.

Sarma's claim came amid several massive eviction drives in Muslim-dominated Dhubri and Goalpara districts, where thousands were evicted from wetlands, forests and other government land. As people belonging to Muslim community were evicted, Opposition Congress and Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF called the drive a part of BJP's polarisation tactics ahead of next year's Assembly elections in the state.

"During our eviction drive in North Assam's Lakhimpur district, we observed that many of the encroachers came from Dhubri and South Salmara districts in western Assam, which is 400kms away, and occupied land. They could have gone to West Bengal, which is 30 to 40kms away. But they are spreading to North and Upper Assam district as part of a plan for demographic invasion and to reduce the indigenous communities into minorities," he said.

The CM said once the number of encroachers goes up and become a vote bank, political leaders try to protect them and even oppose eviction drives. "The indigenous communities in Lower and Middle Assam districts like Bongaigaon, Nagaon and Morigaon have already been reduced into minorities. They are now trying to do the same in North Assam's Lakhimpur and Golaghat and Jorhat in Upper Assam. Had steps been taken by government in the past against such a design in Lower Assam and central Assam, our indigenous communities would not have become minorities," he said.

As per the figures shared by sarma, the eviction drives cleared 39,527.72 bighas of land in Sonipur followed by Darrang (17,905 bighas), Lakhimpur (13,481.54 bighas), Hojai (10,749.60 bighas), Goalpara (8,280.36 bighas), Sribhumi (formerly Karimganj) (6,534.48 bighas), Dhubri (4,748.25 bighas), and Cachar (3,291.91 bighas).

Sarma said the deputy commissioners were already deleting names of those evicted from government land from the voters' list as they are residents of in their home districts. "Most of them are not landless people as is being projected by some quarters. They have land in their home district," he said.