Lower Assam areas will face problems if population not checked: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that lower Assam areas will face land problems if population is not checked.

Speaking at the state assembly on Wednesday, Sarma said that eviction drives to clear government land from encroachers will continue.

He said, “Lower Assam people if they do not do family planning in the next 50 years it is difficult for us to survive. There are eight to twelve children in a family.”


Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha has initiated the zero-hour discussion, Sarma said the BJP government will continue to carry out eviction exercises.

Eviction drive is carried out at Batardraba in Assam's Nagaon district. Batadrava Than is the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardev (the 15th century saint-reformer of Assam).

A team of Congress party visited the site on Tuesday. A fact finding delegation under the leadership of Rakibul Hussain, Deputy Leader, ACLP to visit recently evicted areas.

Sarma said, “All people, whether Hindus or Muslims, will have to vacate Sattra land. We request all to leave the encroached land or else we will do eviction there. There is a policy of the government to provide land to landless. We have seen that some people are in possession of 50 bighas of land.”

When Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain pleaded the government must provide drinking water and food to evicted people, Sarma said, “It is not the government policy for they broke the law by encroaching the land. Government cannot set up camps. It's the job of the NGOs.”

He said, “Congress which ruled 75 years could have given lands to the landless people.