Assam villagers vacate homes as deadline to clear encroached land ends

A large number of families in Kochutoli village in Assam's Kamrup (Metropolitan) district, which witnessed violence during a recent eviction drive, started vacating their homes with the deadline to clear "encroached land" ending on Monday, officials said.

The villagers were seen going with their belongings, including livestock, in vans.

According to officials, these villagers are "illegal settlers in the tribal belt".

Most of the alleged encroachers have land in other districts, like Darrang, Morigaon and Barpeta, and have started returning to their homes there, the officials said.

The Kamrup (Metropolitan) district authorities have set September 16 as a deadline to vacate the Kochutoli village.

Eviction notices were served to those "illegally occupying government land" and stringent action would be taken against those who would remain there after the deadline, one of the officials said.

A team from the Sonapur Circle office and the police had gone to Kochutoli village to evict .