16 ‘encroacher’ families evicted and homes razed in Tripura; MLA assures rehabilitation

A letter served by the Panisagar subdivisional magistrate on April 18 asked the 16 families to vacate the land in seven days. “This court has fixed the date 24.04.2023 at 11 am for eviction of all the unauthorized occupants from the land owned by PWD,” the letter said.

Speaking to reporters later, local BJP MLA Binoy Bhushan Das said that everyone evicted in the process would be rehabilitated. “Those who were evicted in the town will be given land in the town and those who were in villages will be rehabilitated in villages,” he said.

The legislator, who served as pro tem speaker before Speaker Biswabandhu Sen was sworn in, also said the evicted people were staying on the government land for a year and that they could not continue to do so for an indefinite period.

Panisagar deputy collector and magistrate Dibakar Jamatia was deputed as executive magistrate and instructed to report the eviction process to the authority concerned. The subdivisional police officer was requested to ensure security personnel including women police officers and to depute a police officer not below the rank of sub-inspector at the eviction spot.

A senior manager of the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited was asked to send a technical team to disconnect power connections and the Panisagar fire station officer in-charge was requested to be present along with equipment. The tehsildars of Rowa and Ramnagar were also present during the eviction.