The Assam government on Monday started an eviction drive to clear settlements from nearly 1,000 bigha of land (1.35 sqkm) around Batadraba Than.
The largest eviction drive in Assam’s Nagaon district began near the birthplace of Vaishnav saint Srimanta Sankardeva on Monday amid tight security, a senior police officer said to PTI news agency.
The eviction drive began with the deployment of over 600 security personnel.
“After Santijan Bazaar we will clear land in Haidubi area and depending on the time taken there, we will take a decision on carrying out the drive in the remaining two villages”, Superintendent of Police, Leena Doley told reporters.
The district administration had served notices to over 1,000 families in October to clear the land. More than 80 per cent of the people have dismantled their houses, shops and other structures and moved out, the SP claimed.
Clearing of sattra land, was the Hindutva party’s major poll issue in the last assembly election.
This is the second major large-scale eviction drive with the first in Dhalpur area of Darrang district which led to police firing against locals, resulting in the death of two Muslims including a minor and over 20 injured in September, 2021.
Meanwhile AIUDF MLA and party general secretary Aminul Islam called the eviction “injustice.”
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