Guwahati, Feb 3: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that 912 acres of encroached land — an area larger than the campus of IIT Guwahati — has been freed of illegal occupants in the Hailakandi district, intensifying the state government’s eviction campaign against encroachments.
In a post on X, Sarma said the recovery of the land was a reaffirmation of the government’s commitment “to reclaim every inch of our land from encroachers” as bulldozers rolled in since Monday. “It’s a question of our survival, and we shall emerge victorious,” he added in the post.
The eviction drive in Hailakandi is part of a broader state initiative to clear forest, government and reserve land of alleged illegal settlers, a campaign Sarma said was critical to protecting Assam’s ecological balance and indigenous identity. An official update said the freed 912 acres included forest and government lands that had been under encroachment for years.
Sarma, who has been leading aggressive land reclamation efforts across Assam since 2021, defended the operations as necessary to curb illegal occupation by outsiders and to prevent demographic shifts in the state.
He has repeatedly argued that unchecked encroachments have altered population patterns and threatened the rights of indigenous communities. In related remarks last year, Sarma highlighted that eviction drives had cleared tens of thousands of acres across the state, asserting that reclaiming land was vital not only for law and order but also for cultural preservation.
He warned that once encroachers become politically entrenched, eviction becomes difficult, imperilling the future of the state’s indigenous people. The eviction drive in Hailakandi is expected to affect hundreds of families. Local administrators have said the affected persons will be offered rehabilitation options in accordance with government norms, even as opposition parties and civil society groups have urged humane treatment and due process for those displaced.
IANS
