Eviction drives to continue , 25,000 acres of land recovered: Assam CM

Asserting that eviction drives will continue in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said that over 25,000 acres of land have been cleared of encroachment across the state in the last four years. Addressing a press conference after a cabinet meeting in Guwahati, Sarma announced that an eviction drive will take place in Goalpara on Saturday to clear forest land from alleged encroachment. "As of now, the Assam government has cleared thousands of bighas of land in the last four years. The Gauhati High Court has asked us to clear forest land. It only said that we should provide drinking water and other essential items to the evicted people,” he added.

Tentatively, we have recovered 25,000 acres of land through evictions over the last four years. We will share the final details soon, but significant progress has been made in expanding Assam’s forest habitat. pic.twitter.com/1O9abvHDbZ

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 10, 2025

Sarma said, “The government is willing to provide land rights to the evicted people provided they are bona fide Indian citizens and they are landless. Regarding the condition of landlessness, they have to be landless in their native places, not at the evicted place.” He claimed that a very minuscule percentage usually come forward to claim land rights after an eviction drive. Sarma also claimed that Hindus have become minority in many places such as Dhubri town, and alleged that 10,000-12,000 people from Baghbor in Barpeta migrated to the western Assam town and changed the demographic pattern.

The cabinet also approved several decisions aimed at addressing human-elephant conflicts, improving healthcare regulations, and enhancing welfare schemes for students and traditional workers. The government will launch the Gaja Mitra Scheme in eight high-risk districts. As part of the initiative, community-based rapid response teams, each with eight local members, will be deployed in 80 conflict-prone villages. These teams will operate during peak conflict months, particularly around the paddy cultivation season, to ensure safe elephant movement and protect local livelihoods. The Assam cabinet has also approved the proposal to enhance the remuneration of village heads from Rs 9,000 per month to Rs 14,000 per month with effect from October 1 this year. In a separate development, a new Standard Operating Procedure now requires private hospitals to release deceased patients’ bodies within two hours of death certification. Hospitals failing to comply will face penalties for delays. Meanwhile, under the Prerona.