Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday vowed to free the state from infiltrators, blaming the bureaucracy under previous governments for “allowing a mind-boggling scale of encroachment” while warning of action against officials who failed to stop encroachment.

While flagging his government’s efforts at ensuring all-around development through industrialisation and improving connectivity, Sarma made the encroachment by “unknown people” and their eviction a key part of his Independence Day speech delivered at Khanapara ground here.

In a post on X, Sarma used the term infiltrators, instead of “unknown people” and the threat posed by them – an issue also highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort.

In his speech, Sarma said: “On this Day, standing under the sacred national flag, we have once again taken the pledge to evict unknown encroachers from every bit of forest land, every bit of grazing land, and every bit of government land. We will continue this movement. Standing under the sacred flag, we, the Assamese community, have taken the pledge that we will not rest until every bit of encroached land is freed from unknown people. Till then, our movement will continue.”

Sarma said if the Assamese people remained silent, the community would not survive the encroachment-induced demographic change in the state. He implored the public to “fight for and defend the identity of Assam from going extinct in the coming days due to demographic change”.

“Assam cannot remain silent. If we remain silent, we will lose our jati mati bheti. That day is not far away. In ten years, as chief minister, I am predicting, if our youths remain silent and if the Assamese continue to compromise, we will lose our jati mati bheti in ten years. In 15 years, 80 per cent of the state ministers will be from them (infiltrators) and in two decades, the national flag on Independence Day will be hoisted by a chief minister from among unknown people. This is Assam’s future,” he further said..

Sarma warned government officials that they would face action if there was
encroachment.

In subsequent posts on X, Sarma said: “On this 79th #IndependenceDay, I promise to make Assam free of infiltrators. Evictions will NOT STOP and shall continue till every inch of land is reclaimed.”

In another post, he said, “ The bureaucracy under previous governments have a lot to answer for - as to how such a mind boggling scale of encroachment by infiltrators was allowed in Assam.”