Keeping the promise made during the Assam state assembly election, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has again taken stern action against illegal encroachment.
Sarma said, that he will continue with the ongoing eviction in the Lumding reserve forest as all encroachment in Assam is done for business purposes.
As per reports, a man named Nazrul bought around 1500 migrant Muslim families to the Lumding reserve forest from different places of Assam like Nagaon, Barpeta, and Dhubri, and in a nexus with government and forest officials he managed to destroy almost half of the reserve forest and settled hundreds of families there during 2007 to 2015.
Sarma also said that even Dhalpur-Girukhuti encroachment was done for business purposes with the support of a few land mafias who grab huge areas of land and later they sell it to encroaching families and do large scale cultivation.
According to the Hojai district administration, the eviction drive started on Monday morning and will clear 500 hectares of land which is being done as per the Guwahati High Court order. The High Court responding to a PIL filed by ex MLA of Hojai Siladitya Dev, directed the government to clear the encroachment in Lumding reserve forest by February 2022.
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