Kamal Ghorui
Guwahati: Assam governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya on Monday hailed the BJP-led state govt’s eviction drives, saying “decisive action was taken to address long-standing issues of land encroachment,” with “a total of 1.45 lakh bighas of land” recovered.The four-day budget session (Vote-on-Account) of the assembly began amid disruptions, with opposition MLAs storming the well of the House and protesting during the governor’s address. Slogans were raised as noisy scenes continued through the speech, which lasted about 45 minutes. The vote-on-account is scheduled to be presented on Tuesday, with the state heading to assembly elections.In his interim budget speech, Acharya detailed the land recovered through eviction drives, including “1.1 lakh bighas of land belonging to wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and reserved forests, 26,713 bighas of govt khas land, along with land under VGR/PGR and other public categories.”On enforcement of the Immigration (Expulsion from Assam) Act 1950, Acharya said from May 2021 to 2025, Foreigners’ Tribunals disposed of 59,757 cases and declared 30,264 persons foreigners. “During this period (May 2021–2025), a total of 1,517 persons, including Declared Foreign Nationals (DFNs), Convicted Foreign Nationals (CFNs) and fresh illegal migrants, were deported/sent back,” he said.The governor also said Assam ranked first nationally in implementing new criminal laws with a 78.13 percent score.“Crime rates declined sharply from 379 per lakh population in 2021 to 121.6 per lakh in 2025. Total crime reported saw a reduction of 72 percent, from 1.33 lakh cases in 2021 to around 38,000 in 2025. Crime against women saw a reduction of 87 percent, from 29,046 cases in 2021 to 3,915 cases in 2025,” Acharya said, adding that crime against children declined from 5,282 to 4,753 cases in 2025.“Between 2022–23 and 2024–25, child marriage declined by 84 per cent among girls under 18 years and by 91 per cent among boys under 21 years, exceeding national averages,” Acharya added.On the anti-narcotics drive, he said Assam registered 14,503 cases under the NDPS Act between 2021 and November 2025, with over 23,000 arrests and seizures valued at more than Rs 2,900 crore, calling it nearly four times the arrests and a multiple-fold increase in recoveries compared to previous decades.On the economy, Acharya said Assam’s growth outpaced the national average, citing RBI’s assessment.“As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s latest assessment, Assam emerged as India’s fastest-growing state. At constant prices, the State’s Gross State Domestic Product expanded by 45 per cent between FY20 and FY25, the highest among all major states, significantly outperforming the national average growth of 29 per cent.”“During this period, at current prices, the State’s GSDP is estimated to cross Rs 7 lakh crore in 2025–26, more than double over the last 5 years,” the governor added.
