JORHAT, June 20 - To protect government land from the large-scale encroachment by suspected illegal migrants in various districts of the State a forum of sensitive citizens named Prabajan Virodhi Mancha (PVM) today demanded to enact a new law by the State legislators in a special session of the State Legislative Assembly which can empower the law-enforcing agencies to evict those encroachers without further delay.
In an interaction with several citizens and journalists here today the convenor of the forum advocate Upamanyu Hazarika said that no migrant of foreign countries should be allowed to occupy any forest or grazing land in any location of the State if the dweller cannot produce valid documents of legal possession of the land and property from his ancestors, who names were included by the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951.
As the spiraling figure of population of suspected illegal migrants and large-scale encroachment by them in several districts of both the Brahmaputra and Barak valley posed threat to the demographic statistics of the State, Hazarika said that the new BJP-led government must conduct massive eviction-drive at those locations with the help of special legal provisions.
�Detection and deportation of illegal migrants will be a long process. After updating the NRC government will be able to only identify the Indian citizens first. Detection and deportation of illegal migrants will take place after identification of the Indian citizens through the updated NRC. But, eviction drive in the government land by suspected illegal migrants becomes the urgent need of the State,� said Hazarika, who was assigned by the Supreme Court to file enquiry reports on the issue of influx in the State.
Highlighting the serious problems caused by the illegal migrants advocate Rintu Goswami of Jorhat said that people of the State voted for the new government to protect the land property of the indigenous citizens and the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal should take up necessary initiatives to evict the illegal migrants as soon as possible. It is to be mentioned that PVM has already organised awareness campaigns against occupation of government land by illegal migrants in Mangaldoi and many other areas of the State.
Along with Goswami senior citizens of Jorhat including Bhaba Chetia, Jagat Chandra Borthakur, representatives of students organizations Dhiraj Gowalla, Sanjay Krishna Tanti and several other citizens also attended the interaction programme.
