Guwahati: The Lakhimpur district administration in Assam on Friday carried out a major eviction drive on the Boginadi Professional Grazing Reserve (PGR), clearing 19 bighas of government land that officials said had been occupied by 132 families, comprising 704 people, for several years.

Source: IANS via Asia Post

Officials said permanent houses and other structures, a mosque and betel nut plantations had come up on the No. 1 and No. 2 Boginadi PGR areas. The administration said eviction notices had been issued to the occupants, and bulldozers were deployed to demolish the unauthorised structures after the occupants did not vacate the land within the stipulated period.

The drive is part of the Assam government's continuing statewide campaign to clear government land of encroachment. Professional Grazing Reserves and Village Grazing Reserves are lands set aside for community use, and officials said protecting them is necessary to preserve common resources and ecological balance. The district administration was expected to follow up with further eviction operations at Koilamari and Borbil on November 14.

Residents say they settled after fleeing the 1983 riots

Residents affected by the demolition say many of the families had settled on the land after fleeing the anti-Muslim riots that swept Assam in 1983, and that the drive has displaced them for a second time. Researchers cited in international coverage say Assam's eviction drives have disproportionately targeted Muslims of Bengali origin — a claim the state government rejects, maintaining that the drives are conducted without discrimination and only against encroachment on government land.

Source: Al Jazeera

The reports from Lakhimpur did not carry details of any rehabilitation or resettlement arrangements for the evicted families. The Boginadi operation is the largest single-site eviction reported in Lakhimpur district this month, where the administration has served notices on around 450 families across several grazing-reserve sites.