Five lakh bighas of encroached land to be freed by next BJP govt: Assam CM Himanta

PATHSHALA (ASSAM): (Mar 26) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said the BJP government will evict encroachers from five lakh bighas of land if it returns to power after the April 9 assembly polls.

Addressing an election rally in Bajali assembly constituency, Sarma said the encroachers, most of whom he described as ‘Miya’ (a derogatory term for Bengali-speaking immigrant Muslims), had been taught a lesson over the past five years, and their domination over indigenous communities had "significantly decreased."

"In the last five years, we cleared 1.5 lakh bighas of land, but our target for the next five years will be to free five lakh bighas of encroached government land," he said.