Shocking discoveries regarding Assam eviction violence victims emerge from fact-finding Prajakta Joshi Sep 29, 2021 report https://www.indiejournal.in/article/shocking-discoveries-regarding-assam-evicition-violence-victims-emerge-from-fact-finding-report
They are not ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants’ as they are called,” said Clifton D’Rozario, Karnataka Secretary, CPIML Central Committee Member.
The report states that the evicted households have settlement papers dating back to February 7th, 1979, showing that they have been paying occupancy charges. “These people had identity cards, their names have come in the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) of India, they have land documents. How are they illegal?,” D’Rozario asked, adding that the people in the village have been affected by erosion caused by the river Brahmaputra for years and have been living in absolute poverty because of it.
“Every year, when the river floods their land these families are displaced onto government land where they are forced to live in temporary houses. After the flood subsides, they go back to their original homes if anything is left of it. If their homes are washed away by the river due to erosion and riverbank subsiding, they have nowhere to go back to. How can such households be termed encroachments?
Meanwhile, the Assam Government has continued to defend its stand in the incident.