The authorities on Monday launched a massive eviction drive near the birthplace of Vaishnav saint Srimanta Sankardeva in Assam’s Nagaon district to clear the encroached land.

At least 600 security personnel were deployed to avoid any untoward incident during the eviction process. Nagaon Superintendent of Police Leena Doley said the eviction drive was completed in a very peaceful manner.

“People have cooperated with the administration. Nearly 80 per cent of people who had their houses, shops, etc. in the encroached area have cleared it on their own,” she said.

Nagaon district administration has carried out the eviction drive on Monday at Santijan Bazar area and it has a plan to do more such exercises at Haidubi, Lalungaon, Jamaibasti, and Balisatra of Batadrava mouza under Dhing revenue circle of the district in the next few days, a senior official said.

As per the local administration, a total of 1,200 bighas of encroached land is to be evicted.

Deputy Commissioner Narendra Kumar Shah said that the district administration has served notice to over 1,000 families to vacate the land in October.

“We started the process two months back and since then, we urged to the people of encroached land to vacate the place on their own,” he added.

Satya Ranjan Hazarika, the DIG of Central range of Assam Police also said that there was no obstruction from the people during the eviction. Notably, in September 2021, a large-scale eviction drive in the Dhalpur area of Darrang led to violence, resulting in the death of two persons.

At least 20 persons suffered injuries in a clash with the police.

(The article has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline)