GUWAHATI, June 1? In continuing with its eviction drive, the State Forest Department demolished 229 houses in the South Kalapahar Reserve Forest (RF) area of the city today and freed 37 hectares of land from encroachment. Yesterday, 204 houses were demolished in the same RF area and a land area of 25 hectares was freed from encroachment by the Department. The RF has a total land area of 70 hectares. The Department used one elephant and two bulldozers yesterday and three elephants and three bulldozers today. The eviction party was divided into three teams on both the days.
According to Forest Department sources here, the houses demolished on both the days included 62 permanent structures, 73 semi-permanent structures and 298 temporary structures. The RF area was very heavily encroached and the Forest officials showed the people the area of the RF on both the days which facilitated very peaceful eviction operations, said the sources.
Meanwhile, protesting against the eviction drives of the Forest Department in the city the Guwahati city committee of the Assam Gana Parishad has planned a protest procession, to be taken out from the State headquarters of the party at 10 a.m. of June 4. The All Guwahati Students? Union (AASU) today handed over memorandums to the four MLAs of the city? Pankaj Bora, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Rabin Bardoloi and Hemanta Talukdar protesting against the eviction of the indigenous people from the forest areas without clearly demarcating the boundary of the RFs and issuing notices well in advance.
In case of the failure of the MLAs to mount pressure on the Government as demanded, the AGSU warned steps against the MLAs. The city committee of the Gana Parishad in a press release here this evening, alleged that the politically motivated eviction drive of the Congress Government has created a horrified situation for the indigenous people. The city committee also demanded publication of the Supreme Court order on the basis of which the eviction drive is launched, proper issuance of notices in connection with the drive and rehabilitation of the evicted people.