GUWAHATI: The Assam government has instructed all district commissioners in the state to find out the level of encroachment in the forest areas, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday. Addressing a press conference, he said the state government would make an effort to evict people from the forest areas, except those eligible for forest rights.
“There are some people who are eligible (to live) even in forests. Tribal people can stay there provided they have come prior to 2005,” Sarma said, “We are going to evict those who are not covered under the Forest Rights Act,” he added.
Further, he said that it would be a humongous task considering that the level of encroachment is very high and beyond imagination. “Even if we carry out one eviction drive a month, it will take at least 10 years to complete (the entire exercise),” he said.
Recently, the Assam government had carried out massive eviction drives, particularly in Dhubri, Goalpara and Golaghat districts, which affected several thousand people, mostly Muslims.
‘Conspiracy by Congress to defame RSS’
The Assam chief minister alleged that the Malegaon case was a conspiracy hatched by the Congress to defame the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu society.
“We all know that the entire reality of the case was to bring RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat Ji into the matter. That is a known conspiracy but it was exposed by the court yesterday,” Sarma said.
He said many people were talking about it and many more would talk because this was the worst kind of conspiracy. “The Congress stands exposed and many more exposures will come, I am sure because the entire plan was to defame RSS, Hindu religion and Hindu society,” he said, calling it a political witch-hunt by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram.
“After this verdict, my own assessment will be that Mr Chidambaram should now be quizzed for trying to frame Hindu society with terror. I think people should try to ask those questions to Mr Chidambaram,” the Assam chief minister further said.