Around 30 houses that were illegally constructed at Masjid Para under the lower Bagdogra gram panchayat near Siliguri were bulldozed in an eviction drive today.

The drive against encroachment of government land was conducted by the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Naxalbari, following orders from the Collector under the West Bengal Public Land Eviction Act, and the Sub Divisional officer (SDO), Siliguri.

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While local people in the area alleged that the administration acted without serving any prior notice, officials maintained that notices had been served and the occupants asked to vacate the illegallyoccupied government land.

“We were not given any prior notice for the evection, and they came all of a sudden today and started demolishing the houses, despite the fact that we produced land ownership documents,” said the locals.

Ruling out the allegations, Naxalbari BDO Bapi Dhar said, “An evection notice was given on 24 June to the illegal occupants; we had given them until 26 June to vacate the land and told them that the administration would take action on 27 June. Moreover, the illegally-settled occupants produced forged ownership documents. The documents produced in the court were declared fake.”

“As per land records, JL 94 Mauja: Dhumriguri, plot no 520,522,523,534,538 spread across 2.5 acres of land approximately were evicted today. Thirty houses had been built in these five plots, both ‘pucca’ and ‘kutcha,’” Mr Dhar added.

Meanwhile, SDO Siraz Daneshyar said that the notice was served to them earlier too, “but due to some law and order situation, we were not able to act.” “The first notice for the eviction was sent almost 20 days ago, but due to some law and order issues, we had to reschedule the action then. This is the second notice sent to them, and they were called and given sufficient opportunity,” he said.

Asked about the fake land ownership documents produced by the locals, Mr Daneshyar explained, “In 1963, the government had acquired some land. During the Chinese war, a lot of military infrastructure was created, so the land was taken under some Act, and initially it was only borrowed, requisitioned for a while. Then subsequently, the government decided to acquire the land so they gave compensation too. Since the government bought the land, but did not change the records, they repeatedly went to the Block Land Records Office (BLRO) and got the same old records, knowing well that the land had already been acquired.”

“There is sustained effort to somehow take the government land by the virtue of saying that the record is not updated. But we were able to show that they were given compensation in two parts- -first in 1962 and then in 1967–there are signatures on record. There is strong land mafia working in both Bagdogra-Naxalbari and Matigara areas,” added Mr Daneshyar.