Eviction affected child video goes viral at Silsako Beel in Assam

GUWAHATI: A seven-year-old boy at an eviction site near Silsako Beel (lake) here, made a heart-wrenching appeal to a policeman to ask the bulldozer, which will wipe out his house, to wait for a while. It has gone viral on the media on Wednesday.

The 19-second clip features images of the boy carrying two plastic baskets containing some light household items.
He is seen video recording the eviction approaching a policeman and pleading with him, “Uncle tell them not to come now, we haven’t picked up our luggage yet. It took another 10 minutes.” Gee,” he is heard urging his family members, who are moving their meager belongings, to hurry. This is followed by scenes of the demolition of a house, allegedly his home.
Local channels telecast visuals showing a single boy sitting on the rubble of his house crying and crying. Netizens ranging from ordinary people to social activists, lawyers, journalists and opposition lawmakers have been making passionate appeals to the government to stop the campaign immediately. However, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stood firm on Wednesday and asserted that the ongoing eviction drive, now in its third day, would continue and be scaled up gradually.
He said that Tata Group Hotel Ginger, Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, which is an independent research institute of ICSSR and Government of Assam and Chilarai Bhawan of All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Sanmilani were also removed from the area will be entered.
In this campaign in the heart of Guwahati, the administration demolished several houses, offices and shops. The Kamrup Metropolitan District Administration has deployed around 40 excavators, bulldozers and excavator transporters, backed by around 1,200 police personnel.
This has prompted the opposition to call the practice “inhumane”. He also appealed to the state government to stop it as hundreds of students appearing for the ongoing class 10th and 12th exams are being affected.
Several school students in the area broke down in front of the media and wondered why exam season was chosen to carry out the “heartless act”.

Initially, the authority had planned to demolish around 450 buildings within 100 meters on both sides of Silsako Beel, but the government has now announced that the entire area around the reservoir will be cleared of encroachments.
In 2008, the government declared the lake a protected water body through a legislation and banned any construction or settlement in about 1,800 bighas (over 595 acres) of the lake’s area. “I have asked to evict Ginger (hotel) and it may take two months. OKD institute, lawn tennis court, coach Rajbongshi Sanmilani’s office – all will be evicted. Badruddin Ajmal (of AIUDF) Head)’s land will also be taken.The government will not show love to anyone,” Sarma said. Satellite images show that the encroachment took place between 2009 and 2015. “We must remember that there is a natural solution to the global menace of climate change,” the chief minister said. Sarma added that the government will evict all those who have settled illegally in the area, while those who have succeeded in gaining rights will be given land.
Hotels and establishments are located in Chachal on the banks of the lake. During the day, All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Sanmilani’s Chilarai Bhawan was demolished, an official said.

He said that temporary huts, concrete houses and multi-storied buildings were demolished during the eviction drive in the encroachment area.
Most of the people affected in the campaign belong to Assamese communities such as Bodo, Mising, Karbi, Ahom and Bishnupriya Manipuri, unlike the rest of Assam where most of the evicted were Bengali-speaking Muslims.
“I was a member of Akhil Gogoi’s Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti. I joined BJP believing in our Chief Minister’s development model. But now he has stabbed us in the heart. What will we do? Where will I go with my children?” asked a tearful Sabita Gogoi.
“At least spare our Lords and our faith,” Samaresh Kalita appealed to the government as a ‘namghar’ (shrine of Vaishnavite) near a stone quarry was demolished. Congress leader of opposition Debabarta Saikia and constituency MLA Rakibul Hussain visited the displaced families and criticized the government for the manner in which the evictions were being carried out.
The government lacks humanity. His act is putting democracy at stake. The people here are Assamese and local. They have no land and that is why they were staying here,” Saikia said. He demanded that the government should provide alternative accommodation to the evacuees first.Hussain said Sarma was the Development Minister of Guwahati during the previous Congress regime in the state. What was he doing when encroachments were taking place near the city’s reservoirs? In fact he had changed the green belt and offered land to build Guwahati’s first five-star hotel.
Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority chairman Narayan Deka said the administration had set a target of cleaning 100 meters on both sides of the lake, which was about 400 bighas (over 132 acres), though almost three times the area by then. has been captured.
“Now we have less than 300 bighas of the lake free from encroachment. Due to massive encroachment, the water storage has been left in a small pit and it is one of the water storage areas in the eastern part of Guwahati during monsoon. There is an important reason.
As the area falls under the protected zone and no settlement has been given, the administration has not issued any notice to the residents. “They didn’t have permission at all. They were verbally asked to leave the area about four to five months ago,” Deka said.
State Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Ashok Singhal took a helicopter ride over Guwahati to inspect the encroachment of reservoirs in the capital city.
The Himanta Biswa Sarma government, since assuming power in May 2021, has launched an eviction drive in various parts of the state. In the last three months, several large-scale eviction exercises took place.
The largest such drive was in February in Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuary, which cleared 2,099 hectares in Sonitpur district and nearby revenue villages, affecting about 12,800 people. Similar campaigns were conducted in Digboi, Bhabanipur in Barpeta district, Pava Reserve Forest in Lakhimpur district and Batadrava in Nagoan.
Sarma had told the Assembly in December that the drive to clear government and forest lands in Assam would continue as long as the BJP was in power in the state.