District authorities in Assam have intensified the crackdown against illegal settlers resulting in separate eviction drives at two locations on Friday. The operations were conducted on a stretch of the national highway between Jorabat and Byrnihat and a grazing field in Hajo.

Officials of the Kamrup metropolitan district administration and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) joined hands to clear out illegal encroachments on an 11-kilometer stretch of the National Highway 27 between Jorabat and Byrnihat today.

During the drive, several small businesses that had set themselves up covering the drains along the stretch were evicted. This was after authorities identified them as one of the reasons leading to artificial flooding. As per reports, the Assam Chief Minister's convoy had to travel through floodwaters accumulated in the region prompting the swift action against such shop owners.

Elsewhere, Kamrup district administration evicted suspicious settlers on a patch of grazing field at Dakshin Singra village under Hajo sub-district today. The settlers have been accused of illegally encroaching on the land and settling there.

The settlers have been accused of digging up large parts of the field to create artificial ponds. Sources informed that 123 bighas of pasture land under 286 grazing reserve had been encroached upon illegally. Apart from digging up the land to create ponds, they also constructed houses on the massive land patch.