Citizens’ Forum Slams “Inhuman” Eviction Drive in Dhubri

The Assam United Citizens Convention (AUCC), a collective of prominent public intellectuals and civil society members, has strongly condemned the recent eviction drive carried out in the Chapar Revenue Circle of Dhubri district, terming it "inhuman, brutal and cruel." According to the AUCC, over a thousand farmers and daily wage labourers have been forcibly displaced under what they allege is a government-backed plan to uproot the marginalised for the benefit of corporate interests.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, conveners of the AUCC — including eminent intellectual Hiren Gohain, writer Harekrishna Deka, MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, Civil Society Leader Paresh Malakar, prof. (retd) Abdul Mannan, and senior lawyer of Gauhati High Court Santanu Borthakur — accused the Assam government of acting like “heartless zamindars” by throwing landless people off the land without resettlement or rehabilitation.

“These people have lived and worked on these lands for generations, yet they are now being labelled as ‘encroachers’ without due process,” the statement read. “This shows the continuity of colonial-era land policies, where land is viewed not as a means of livelihood, but merely as a tool for revenue extraction.”

The AUCC alleged that previous governments, despite their shortcomings, had shown some degree of humanitarian concern by allowing residents on government land to remain. However, the current administration, they argue, has taken a far more aggressive and profit-driven stance, displacing indigenous people, backward communities, and char dwellers overnight, leaving them homeless and destitute.

“They are clearing out the poor so that this land can be handed over to big corporate houses — both domestic and foreign — in the name of development and industrialisation,” the statement added. “But if development means destroying lives and livelihoods, it has taken a monstrous, demonic form.”

The group also criticised the role of government-owned media, accusing it of promoting divisive narratives, including anti-Muslim propaganda, to distract from the humanitarian crisis on the ground. “This is a dangerous political tactic that must be resisted,” the conveners warned.

The Assam United Citizens Convention has demanded an immediate end to the eviction drives, proper rehabilitation for those already displaced, and greater public vigilance against what it calls “a sinister design to displace and dispossess the vulnerable in the name of development.”

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