Bordering states grabbing over 86,000 hectares of Assam land

Guwahati, Mar 4 (UNI) More than 86,000 hectares of Assam's land has been encroached upon by four neighouring states, State Border Areas Development Minister Gautam Roy informed the Assembly today.

In a written reply to a question by Legislator Raju Sahu, Mr Roy informed that a total of 86,886.49 hectares of Assam's land had been encroached upon by Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, with Nagaland grabbing the highest share of 66,241.69 hectares.

He added that 5,473.92 hectares was encroached upon by Meghalaya, 13,184.88 hectares by Arunachal Pradesh and 1,986 hectares by Mizoram.

The maximum encroachment was in Golaghat district, where Nagaland had encroached on 41,985 hectares of land, the minister said.

On the measures being adopted to reclaim the encroached land, Mr Roy said the state government had already filed cases against Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland in the Supreme Court and the apex court had constituted a three-member body to resolve the issue.

Besides, the state government was reviewing the situation from time to time and also exerting pressure on the Centre to push back the encroachers, he added.

Security along the border areas had been beefed up and Border Outposts were strengthened to prevent fresh instances of encroachment occurred, Mr Roy said.

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