Guwahati: Goalpara officials leveled 73 homes in Krishnai on Monday, September 6. The administration targeted three revenue villages for the eviction drive. They claim the occupants built houses on protected agricultural land without getting the necessary permits to change land use.
Authorities handed out eviction notices before the bulldozers arrived. They gave residents 24 hours to clear out and tear down their own structures. Officials say not a single family complied. The demolition began when the deadline passed. Heavy machinery rolled in. Excavators, JCBs, and bulldozers flattened every home in their path. The district administration framed the move as a direct response to unauthorized land occupation.
Some families had lived on these plots for years. They watched as the machines tore through their property. Residents were distressed as their homes were brought down by the administration. The operation underscores the district's strict stance against land encroachment.
Updated at 7th September 2026 at 6:00pm
The operation hit five revenue villages under the Matia Revenue Circle: Harimura, Bhojmala Tengabari, Paschim Bhelakhamar, Kharija Manikpur, and Jotsarwadi. Authorities rolled in around 8 a.m. with 10 excavators and a heavy police presence to keep the peace.
Officials added a new layer to the justification, claiming the unauthorized construction blocked natural drainage channels and irrigation waterways, strangling local farming. But the evicted families tell a different story. Many claim they are refugees from the Barpeta district, forced to relocate after the Brahmaputra swallowed their ancestral homes and land in 2017. They say they bought plots in Goalpara and remained unaware that the legal classification of the land required a formal change for residential use.
Local sentiment remains split. Some residents cheered the move as a win for protecting agricultural livelihoods. Others pointed out that the displacement included indigenous Assamese families, including some who built on legally held pattadari land in the Magurmari field area.
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