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Time of India
4 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
‘Encroachers' pelt stones, charge at cops during Dhubri eviction drive
1 2 3 4 5 6 Guwahati: Tension ran high in Chapar recenue circle of Dhubri District on Tuesday when alleged encroachers tried to attack police personnel during an eviction drive. The mob damaged excavators by pelting stones at them and hitting them with bamboo sticks, prompting security forces to resort to a baton charge to disperse them. Chapar circle officer Shashee Bhusan Raj Konwar said the people suddenly charged at the eviction team with bamboo sticks and pelted stones at them during the drive at Chirakuta, Charuwa Bakra and Santoshpur village. "They damaged the excavators. However, no one sustained injuries," he added. Following the incident, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said govt's aim is to free land across the state from encroachment so that those can be utilised for public interest. "Over 90% of families vacated the land voluntarily at Chapar. Only about 10% of families were evicted on Tuesday. An eviction drive will be conducted at Paikan in Goalpara district on Thursday, which is a reserve forest. We want to make the reserve forest encroachment-free," the CM told the media. Circle officer Konwar said as per their survey, around 800 families were found to be illegally occupying govt land, where the state has proposed to set up a thermal power plant. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Villa For Sale in Dubai Prices Might Surprise You! Villa for sale in Dubai | Search Ads Learn More Undo He added that cheques of one-time financial assistance of Rs 50,000 each were disbursed to over 700 families and the remaining families will also be provided the assistance. Moreover, he said, the families have also been provided alternate land at Boyjer Alga village under Athani revenue circle. "There is a section of people who resist anything positive and try to create problems. The situation is under control now," he said. Sivasagar MLA and Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi, who went to meet the affected people, was stopped by the police from visiting the eviction sites. He was taken away from the area by police, party sources said. Official sources said the cleared land, which would be around 3,500 bighas, will be handed over to Assam Power Distribution Company Limited for the thermal power project. Eviction drives are being carried out in Charuwa Bakra, Chirakuta, and Santoshpur villages, and those living there were given notices about three months ago to vacate the alleged encroached land.
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Mega eviction drive across 3 Assam villages sees stone pelting and lathi charge; 1,400 families displaced
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. 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. 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.
Scroll.in
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri
The Assam government has demolished the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin from nearly 1,157 acres of government land in Dhubri district to make way for a solar power project, District Magistrate Dibakar Nath told Scroll on Tuesday. The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, which is heading the project, has already been allotted the land, Nath added. Residents affected by the demolitions told Scroll that nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims, who had been living in the area for at least three to four decades, were displaced from Chirakuta 1 and 2, Charuakhara Jungle Block and Santeshpur villages under the Chapar revenue circle in Dhubri. 'These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,' Towfique Hussian, an affected resident, told Scroll. On March 30, the district administration submitted a proposal to convert the Village Grazing Land, a category of government land designated for cattle grazing, for the solar power project, according to minutes of a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2. The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited had acquired around 1,289 acres of government land for the plant. According to the district administration, it had issued eviction notices in advance and made daily public announcements asking residents to vacate and dismantle their homes before Sunday. Police personnel and bulldozers began arriving at the eviction sites on Monday. 'Many of the residents have already moved their belongings out of fear…Everyday people were moving,' Hussian said. 'Those who did not move earlier, their homes were demolished on Tuesday.' Some residents protested against the eviction drive and threw stones at the bulldozers, damaging three of them. The police lathi-charged the protesters. Akhil Gogoi, independent MLA and chief of Raijor Dal, arrived at the eviction site on Tuesday. He told those displaced that he would request Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to allot 165 acres for their rehabilitation. Gogoi was subsequently detained by police for a brief period. 'This eviction is illegal and unconstitutional,' he later said. 'The matter is pending before the Gauhati High Court. The Himanta Biswa Sarma government is demolishing homes unlawfully.' Gogoi claimed that such evictions were being conducted against Muslims to capture Hindu votes. 'The BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government is targeting the minorities just because they are Muslims,' he added. Later in the day, Sarma said the state government will carry out another eviction drive on July 10 in the Paikar area, a reserved forest area in Goalpara district. 'Our aim is clear the encroached land and use them for the public,' the chief minister told reporters. 'We are with the indigenous people of Assam while Akhil Gogoi stands for a particular community. That's our poltical ideology. We will keep doing our work.' About 400 residents from the Charuabakhra Jangal Block village, who were living on the government land after losing their homes due to erosion caused by the Brahmaputra river, had moved the Gauhati High Court against the eviction notices in April. The residents said that the action of the district authorities violated the judgement laid down by the Supreme Court in November. The case is still pending in the High Court. In November, the Supreme Court had held as illegal the practice of demolishing properties of persons accused of crimes as a punitive measure. It added that processes must be followed before removing allegedly illegal encroachments. This is the fourth major eviction carried out in the last 30 days. On June 16, Goalpara authorities demolished the homes of 690 families, all of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, who were living on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel, a wetland. The families told Scroll that many of them were living in the area before it was declared a wetland. Ninety-three families of Bengali-origin Muslims were evicted on June 30 in Assam's Nalbari district during an anti-encroachment drive on nearly 150 acres of village grazing reserve land in the Barkhetri revenue circle. On Thursday, around 220 families were evicted during an anti-encroachment drive in upper Assam's Lakhimpur district. The district authorities said the families were living on 77 acres of land at four locations, including three Village Grazing Reserves. Since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been ousted from government land, between 2016 and August 2024, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Willing to form alliance for '26 polls: Assam Cong prez
Guwahati: Assam PCC president Gaurav Gogoi on Sunday announced that Congress won't go solo in the 2026 assembly polls, ending speculation over the grand old party's possibility of joining the opposition alliance for the polls. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now He said the party is seriously considering forming a pre-poll alliance ahead of the assembly elections and has already initiated talks with a few parties. Speaking at the Assam United Citizen's Convention, attended by Yogendra Yadav, Hiren Gohain, and several other leading figures, Gogoi said a solid coordination between opposition forces could have defeated BJP and its allies in the 2021 election itself. "We need discussions. Social service and electoral politics are different matters. When political decisions and matters arise, Congress will talk to everyone. In elections, Congress will talk to everyone, listen to everyone. We have started listening. We have already sat with some political party leaders," Gogoi added. Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi said his party is eagerly waiting for Congress's green signal to join the alliance. "Everyone is waiting for the announcement of the opposition alliance. Raijor Dal and all other parties are waiting for their go-ahead," said Akhil.
New Indian Express
22-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Get off your high horse: Akhil Gogoi to MP Gaurav
Do you ever get miffed if someone does not take your calls? Well, you are not alone. RTI activist-turned-MLA Akhil Gogoi has a bone to pick with Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi — the latter has not been picking his calls. Expressing his frustration about it, the Raijor Dal chief remarked, 'Talking to Gaurav Gogoi is like talking to the Prime Minister's office. How would a leader feel when he calls up a person of his stature and it goes unattended?' Slamming the MP for his arrogance, Akhil said, 'Gaurav must stop acting like he's the king and everyone else is his subject.' Akhil signed off with a word of advice for the Congress leader — get off your high horse. One of oldest railway stations gets makeover The Haibargaon Railway Station, one of Assam's oldest railway stations, has got a makeover with modern modular toilets, a baby feeding room, kids' play area, an upgraded waiting hall adorned with local art and cultural murals, a refreshment room directly connected to the platform and a redesigned platform surface. The station in central Assam's Nagaon district has been re-developed under the flagship Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. Haibargaon holds historical significance as it once served as a key node during the British rule. Originally built in 1887, the station has now been transformed into a world-class facility.
