Bordowa (Nagaon), Oct. 12: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal today said eviction drives would continue in the state till all the xatras (Vaishnavite monasteries) and tribal belts and blocks in the state were freed of encroachers.

After visiting Bordowa Than ( xatra), the birthplace of Srimanta Xankardev, today, the chief minister expressed concern that land belonging to most xatras in the state were under encroachment. There are around 700 xatras in the state. Bordowa is around 140km east of Guwahati.

"We have started evicting encroachers from the xatra at the birthplace of Gurujana (Srimanta Xankardev). Evicting encroachers from Bordowa Than was our pre-poll promise and we have fulfilled it within a couple of months of our government coming to power in the state. Gradually, all the xatra land will be freed of encroachment," Sonowal told reporters at Bordowa.

Last month, the Sonowal government had freed 130 bighas of Bordowa Than from encroachment by evicting around 30 families.

In the last Assembly polls in the state, the BJP and its allies had made protection of Assamese identity, in the wake of unabated influx from Bangladesh, a major election issue and xatras facing encroachment by suspected illegal immigrants had become a key focus area.

There have been allegations that the previous Congress regime in the state was dragging its feet over taking action against encroachment on xatra land because of vote-bank politics.

"Clear instructions have been given to the deputy commissioners of all the districts to take strong action against those who encroach on xatra land and evictions will continue till all encroachments are removed," Sonowal said.

"We will also ensure that no evicted land is re-encroached," he added.

The chief minister ruled out any compensation to the evicted encroachers.

"It was observed that most of the encroachers despite having their own land somewhere else had illegally encroached upon land belonging to xatras, forests and other government land in the state," he said.

"There have been reports of largescale encroachment in the state's tribal belts and blocks and eviction drives similar to the one taken up at Bordowa Than will be carried out to free these areas of encroachment. This has been a long-standing demand by tribal organisations," Sonowal said.

In notified tribal belts and blocks in the state, no person other than tribal people are allowed to own and possess land.

Sonowal today hit back at the Congress for criticising the state government for carrying out eviction on the periphery of Kaziranga National Park recently.

"The Opposition must realise that the eviction at Kaziranga was carried out in accordance with a Gauhati High Court order. Before criticising us, they need to clarify whether they honour the high court's order or not," he said.

Sonowal said the state government would give priority to rehabilitating nearly 30,000 families that have been rendered landless because of floods and erosion, by providing three bighas of land to each family.

The chief minister said the state government was carrying out a survey to create a database of vacant government land in the state, which would be called "land bank", so that these plots of land could be used in a planned way for future growth of the state.