80,000 hectares of land under illegal occupation

Five neighbouring states have been illegally occupying over 80,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam.

Disclosing this at the state legislative assembly, Assam Border Areas Minister of State Siddique Ahmed said that the land is under occupation of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura.

The encroached lands are in 14 districts of Assam -- Tinsukia, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Kamrup Metro, Kamrup Rural, Goalpara, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Karbi Anglong, Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj.

He said Over 59,000 hectares have been encroached by Nagaland followed by 15,000 hectares by Arunachal Pradesh and the rest by the three other states.

According to him, Assam has already approached the Supreme Court to have the lands occupied by Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh back. In addition, efforts are being made by Revenue and Forest departments to evict the encroachers.