The Assam government has demolished the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin from nearly 1,157 acres of government land in Dhubri district to make way for a power project, District Magistrate Dibakar Nath told Scroll on Tuesday.
The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, which is heading the project, has already been allotted the land, Nath added.
Residents affected by the demolitions told Scroll that nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims, who had been living in the area for at least three to four decades, were displaced from Chirakuta 1 and 2, Charuakhara Jungle Block and Santeshpur villages under the Chapar revenue circle in Dhubri.
“These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,” Towfique Hussian, a resident, told Scroll.
On March 30, the district administration submitted a proposal to convert the Village Grazing Land, a category of government land designated for cattle grazing, for the power project, according to minutes of a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2.
The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited had acquired around 1,289 acres of government land for the plant.
According to the district administration, it had issued eviction notices in advance and made daily public announcements asking residents to vacate and dismantle their homes before Sunday.
Police personnel and bulldozers began arriving at the eviction sites on Monday.
The district authorities have allocated 300 bighas of land in Baizar Alga village for the rehabilitation of the affected people, according to the eviction notice issued by the Chapar revenue circle officer. It had earmarked Rs 50,000 for one-time relief for residents to transport their belongings.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.
