Over 1,700 acres of reserve forest land cleared of encroachments: Minister Himanta
Guwahati (PTI): Over 1,700 acres of reserve forest land in Assam's Hojai district have been cleared of encroachments, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
He asserted that no encroachment will be tolerated.
"GAME OVER for illegal encroachment at Jamuna-Moudanga RF. Mission completed as 5,250 bighas reclaimed through peaceful, lawful & decisive action," Sarma said in a post on X on Saturday, referring to an eviction drive on 1,732.5 acres in the area.
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"No cheat codes needed. Consider this your warning: Illegal encroachment will NOT be tolerated," Sarma asserted.
Since the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government came to power in 2021, it has carried out a series of evictions to clear land from alleged encroachments, mostly affecting the Bengali-speaking Muslim population.
Sarma had said during his press interaction on New Year's Day that so far, eviction drives have been carried out to clear 1,45,000 bighas (47,850 acres) of land.
On November 3 last year, the chief minister asserted that eviction drives to clear encroachments will continue and "illegal Miyas" cannot have peace under his government.
'Miya' is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam, and the non-Bengali speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants. In recent years, activists from the community have started adopting this term as a gesture of defiance.
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Expelled Cong MLA Mamkootathil gets bail in sexual assault case
Pathanamthitta(Kerala) (PTI): A Kerala court on Wednesday granted bail to expelled Congress MLA Rahul Mamkootathil in the third sexual assault case against him, in which he was arrested earlier this month.
The bail was granted by the Pathanamthitta District Sessions Court, which was considering an appeal filed by the MLA against a judicial magistrate's court that had denied him relief, stating that the allegations against him were serious and that he had "similar antecedents".
The third sexual assault case was registered against the Palakkad MLA under Sections 376 (rape) and 506(1) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), following a complaint lodged by a woman from Kottayam district on 8 January. He was arrested in the case on January 11 in Palakkad.
The Kerala High Court and a sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram had earlier protected the MLA from arrest in the first two sexual assault cases, which were registered based on complaints from two different women.
