Assam: Massive eviction drive carried out to clear encroached land in Sonitpur, 299 families evicted

Guwahati: The district administration amid tight security carried out a drive to evict 299 families from government land in Assam’s Sonitpur district on Saturday.

A massive eviction drive is to clear encroachments from 330 acres of land in the district’s No. 3 Chitalmari area with excavators, bulldozers, and demolition workers.

The land has been cleared for a solar plant, said the official.

As per officials, around 90 percent of the people who had illegally encroached on the land had left after they were served with the eviction notice eight months ago.

The operation was carried out under heavy security equipped with anti-riot gear but there were no incidents or opposition from the people.

As many as 1,500 security personnel have been deployed.

Bengali-speaking Muslims made up the majority of the evicted families, followed by Bengali Hindus, Gurkhas, and a small number of tribals. Many of them had moved to Sonitpur as a result of erosion caused by the Brahmaputra River.