The largest eviction drive in Assam’s Nagaon district, near the birthplace of Vaishnav saint Srimanta Sankardeva here, began on Monday amid tight security, a senior police officer said.

The eviction drive began early in the Santijan bazaar area with the deployment of over 600 security personnel and so far it has been peaceful, Nagaon, Superintendent of Police, Leena Doley told reporters here.

The eviction drive is being carried out in four villages to clear encroached government land, the SP said.

“After Santijan Bazaar we will clear land in Haidubi area and depending on the time taken there, we will take a decision on carrying out the drive in the remaining two villages”, Doley said.

The eviction drive to clear over 1,200 bighas of alleged encroached land will take place over the next few days in areas under the Dhing revenue circle.

Heavy security arrangements have been made in the area and the police force, headed by senior officers, is camping here since 13 December with flag marches held here since then, the SP said.

“… people have cooperated with us … “, she said.

More than 80 per cent of the people have dismantled their houses, shops and other structures and moved out.

The district administration had served notices to over 1,000 families of alleged encroachers in October to clear the land.

The affected people have appealed to the government to provide them with alternative arrangements and they will continue to cooperate with the administration.

Read more: Assam govt to carry out eviction drive in Nagaon district from Monday

Clearing of encroachment, particularly of sattra land, here was BJP’s major poll issue in the last assembly election.

This is the second major large-scale eviction drive with the first in Dhalpur area of Darrang district which led to violence, resulting in the death of two persons and over 20 injured in September 2021.