MP Ajmal asks Modi to stop Assam’s ‘discriminatory’ ejection drive

Guwahati: Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Badruddin Ajmal has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to direct the Assam government to stop the ongoing ejection drive, which he alleged was a specific The targeting of the community was “selective and discriminatory” in nature.

In two identical but separate letters, Ajmal, chief of the opposition All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), informed Modi and Shah that the Assam government was carrying out an eviction campaign even in the dead of winter, rendering thousands of poor people homeless. are and cause trouble. For them.
“This inhuman practice must be stopped immediately, at least on the basis of humanity and in the context of human rights in this shivering cold weather,” he wrote on Tuesday.

Ajmal alleged that the Assam government is carrying out an eviction drive without planning any rehabilitation plan and without providing alternative accommodation to the affected poor families, as a result of which they are forced to live under the open sky.
“People are being evicted from places where they have been living for decades. The most objectionable point is that the eviction campaign has been launched in a selective and discriminatory manner to target a community. ,” They said.

The Assam government on Tuesday and Wednesday launched a drive to vacate 450 hectares of forest land from about 500 families of alleged encroachers, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims, in Lakhimpur district.
“Respected Sir, I request you to direct the Assam Government to stop the inhumane evictions at least during the winter season, without any discrimination to the homeless and homeless poor affected families before eviction. Provide land and financial support and stop electoral and discriminatory policies in the eviction campaign,” Ajmal said.

However, he clarified that the AIUDF is not in favor of illegal encroachment on government land and has no objection if the encroachers, whoever they are, are evicted.
But it is also an undeniable fact that Assam is a state where floods and erosion make thousands of people homeless and landless every year. They take shelter on government land because they have no other option.

Therefore, such poor affected families, who have no other place to live, should be resettled without discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and religion after due inquiry as house to the homeless and land to the landless should be provided. It is the responsibility of the government to do so. People of the state,” said Ajmal.

The Lakhimpur exercise is the third major eviction drive in Assam within a month. On December 19, the one at Batadrava in Nagaon is said to be the largest in the region as it has uprooted more than 5,000 alleged encroachments. This was followed by another clearing exercise of 400 bighas at Barpeta on 26 December.
Since assuming power in May 2021, the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led dispensation has been waging an eviction campaign in various parts of the state.

Brushing aside criticism from the opposition, Sarma had told the Assembly on December 21 that the drive to clear government and forest land in Assam would continue as long as the BJP was in power.