The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to provide basic facilities, including healthcare and education, to families living in makeshift camps for over eight months following the eviction drive in the Hashila Beel area of Lower Assam’s Goalpara district in June 2025.
As per reports, 60 affected people had jointly filed a petition alleging that the evictions on the grounds that the land they inhabited formed a part of the Hasila Beel wetland was contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court in various judgements.
Counsel for the 60 petitioners, Z. Khalid, submitted that the “inhuman condition” in which the petitioners were residing required urgent intervention, adding that the state, being a welfare state, was constitutionally bound to provide basic amenities such as sanitation, potable water, medical care and food.
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The petitioners claimed that the evictions, which were carried out on June 16, 17 and 18, 2025, on the ground that the land formed part of a wetland, were “contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court”.
They also claimed that 566 Bengali-speaking families, including children, had been compelled to take refuge for over eight months “in a compact plot of patta land belonging to some other persons” due to the “large-scale eviction”.
Hearing the petition on Wednesday (February 18), the Bench of Justice Devashis Baruah directed the State departments of Health, Food and Civil Supplies, Public Health Engineering, and Elementary Education to immediately provide rations under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), medical services, drinking water, and sanitation facilities to the evicted families staying in makeshift camps.
The court’s order also instructed the state government respondents to submit affidavits detailing its position by March 9. The next hearing is scheduled on March 11.
As per report
Published in The Telegraph
