Lakhimpur: Boginadi families pull down own homes ahead of eviction drive

Families living on the Boginadi Professional Grazing Reserve (PGR) in Assam's Lakhimpur district have begun tearing down their own houses ahead of an eviction drive the district administration is due to start on Thursday morning, November 12.

The operation, under the Kadam Revenue Circle, targets people the administration says are illegally occupying the grazing reserve, The Sentinel reported on Wednesday.

Saving bricks and tin sheets

Residents were seen breaking concrete walls, removing tin roofing and packing timber frames so they could salvage building material before bulldozers arrive. One resident told the newspaper that families had received the government notice to clear the grazing land, and that by dismantling their homes themselves they could at least keep the bricks and tin to rebuild somewhere else.

Part of a district-wide drive

Boginadi is the largest single site in a district-wide anti-encroachment campaign running through mid-November. According to the report, the administration has served eviction notices on around 450 families said to be occupying government land and Village Grazing Reserves, with 130 of those families in Boginadi alone. The Times of India had reported late last month that the district planned eviction drives at five locations in November.

After Boginadi, the final operations are scheduled for November 14 at Koilamari and Borbil, the Sentinel said. An earlier phase in Bihpuria saw 32 commercial shops removed.

Lakhimpur Deputy Commissioner Pronab Jit Kakoty said the administration was following due procedure at every location. Local MLA Ganesh Kumar Limbu said most families had moved out without major protest, as many of them own property elsewhere.

Heavy police deployment has been arranged in coordination with Senior Superintendent of Police Gunendra Deka to maintain law and order during the drive.

State's anti-encroachment push

The drive is part of the Assam government's wider campaign to clear what it describes as encroached government, grazing and forest land. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly said the campaign will continue until all such land is recovered.

Eviction drives in the state have drawn criticism from opposition parties and rights groups, who have raised concerns about rehabilitation and the impact on poor families. It is not clear from the reports whether any rehabilitation or alternative land has been offered to families in Boginadi.

NEInsider will update this story once the drive gets under way on Thursday.