Assam: Day 1 of eviction in Hojai passes peacefully

Assam Eviction People Packing up their belonging and leaving with their families

The Assam state government began its eviction drive in the Lumding Reserve Forest spread over 22,403 acres of land in Hojai district today. Domesticated elephants and JCB machines were used to demolish huts in the Kamorpani and Hajongbasti settlements.

Over 1,000 personnel of Assam Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were deployed fearing an outbreak of violence. But the settlers vacated their homes voluntarily after authorities spoke to them.

“The families hail from Garo and Hajong tribes as well as the Chakma community. Some are also Muslim families. They used to live in Kamorpani and Hajongbasti settlements within the forest. But after authorities spoke to them, they willingly packed up and left,” local people told Nanda Ghosh, the Assam state team in-charge for Citizens for Justice and Peace, SabrangIndia’s sister organisation.

Here are a few images of the evicted families taken by the CJP team in Hojai:

Assam Eviction Evicted families pause to catch a breath after vacating their homes

Assam Eviction Settlement of people within Lumding Reserve Forest

Lumding Block Congress president Rudra Kanta Tamuli and Udali Block Congress president Misbaul Haque visited the area. They told SabrangIndia, “People had gathered their belonging and left their homes even before the administration arrived to demolish their huts.”

Misbaul Haque added, “The evicted people are now going to be rehabilitated in Janju and Dekabasti villages located about 7 kms from their now demolished settlement.” Meanwhile, human rights activists asked the more important questions that have sprung up in wake of the Assam state government’s eviction drives.

Renowned Social worker Arup Baisya asked, “If the Right to Life is a constitutional right, then aren’t the right to food, clothing and shelter also basic human rights?” He further asked, “If eviction of families from Lumding Reserve Forest is a legal obligation as directed by the High Court, is it not the obligation of the government to rehabilitate the evicted people?”

This second question is significant because though the evicted people were verbally assured of rehabilitation and have now shifted to Janju and Dekabasti, there is no commitment to this effect in writing. Infact, the Assam state government had recently submitted before the Gauhati High Court that though it had set aside 1,000 acres of land for rehabilitation of evicted families, their eligibility for rehabilitation was contingent upon their names appearing in the National Register of Citizens (NRC), proof that they were landless in the places from where their families had originally migrated, and proof that the landlessness was the result of river erosion.

The aim of the drive that began Monday and will also continue on Tuesday, was to evict 640 families who had allegedly illegally encroached upon roughly 500 hectares of forest land. As per government estimates roughly 3,000 people have “illegally encroached” upon 1,410 hectares of forest land. The state government had submitted an elaborate phase-wise plan for eviction before the Gauhati High Court in September. According to this plan that was also recorded in the court order dated September 14, “In the action plan prepared by the State authority under the first phase of eviction, which will last for 5 days, it will be undertaken during October 2021 to November 2021 and in 2nd phase, which will last for 4 days, it will be undertaken during November 2021 to December 2021 and under the 3rd phase which will last for 5 days, will be conducted during January 2022 to February 2022.”