Tensions rose on Tuesday as the Assam government carried out one of its largest evictions to date, displacing around 1,400 families from 3,500 bighas (over 450 hectares) of land in Dhubri district to make way for a proposed thermal power project.
The eviction drive, carried out across three revenue villages of Charuabakhra, Santoshpur and Chirakuta Pt. 1, started on Tuesday morning. Violence flared around midday when residents began pelting stones and bricks at a bulldozer, prompting police to resort to lathi charge to disperse them. According to officials, two pieces of equipment were damaged.
Sivasagar MLA and Raijor Dal leader Akhil Gogoi also travelled to the site but was detained by the police and taken away. Calling the eviction illegal and unconstitutional, Gogoi said, “This is nothing but bullying of minorities. I clearly stated that the affected people should be fairly compensated.”
These 3,500 bighas of government khas land in Dhubri district is primarily occupied by Bengali-speaking Muslims, and the district administration estimates there are around 1,700 structures built on it where 1,400 families live.
“This is government khas land which has been allotted to the APDCL (Assam Power Distribution Company Limited) for a thermal power plant, and they will do the tendering for the project,” said Dhubri DC Dibakar Nath.
This is the fourth such drive carried out by the Assam government in the past month, with similar evictions in Goalpara, Nalbari and Lakhimpur. Over 2,300 families have been displaced in total. (Express Photo)
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had visited these sites last month and announced that the land had been earmarked as the site of a proposed 3,200 MW thermal power plant, a project for which the state government has been in talks with the Adani group. In April this year, Sarma met Jeet Adani in Guwahati to “finalise key Adani projects in Assam”, including a thermal power plant.
This is the fourth such drive carried out by the Assam government in the past month, with similar evictions in Goalpara, Nalbari and Lakhimpur. Over 2,300 families have been displaced in total.
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Jakir Hussain (39) is one of the few residents of Charuabakra who has stayed in his house through the eviction. “Since we have patta (land rights) in the village, the circle officer told us that we will be given land somewhere else. So we are holding tight and waiting to be told where we will be given some land. We have been given time till July 15 to leave,” he said, adding that his family had moved to the village around 40 years ago after they were displaced from a char (riverine sandbar) elsewhere in Dhubri because of river erosion.
His family is among 197 pattadars identified by the district administration among those living in these villages.
“In the case of these people, there will be land acquisition, and they will be given land or money. The rest are encroachers; they have been given Rs 50,000 ex gratia per family, mostly to assist them with transportation. We have allocated 300 bighas of land in Baizar Alga village where people who will become landless after the eviction can go and take possession,” said DC Nath.
