Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday (9 October) defended the ongoing eviction drive in the state and said that his government cannot allow 1,000 families to grab 77,000 acres land.

"We have evicted them because this is a land of 77,000 acres and 1,000 families cannot occupy that 77,000 acres of land. There has to be economic distribution of land," Sarma said at India Today conclave.

"Our land policy says that nobody can occupy land more than 2 acres," he added.

"We have to give land to the people who doesn't have land. We have to do government projects. So we have to evict people if they encroach land in VGR (Village Grazing Reserve), PGR (Professional Grazing Reserve) and if they encroach land in our forestry," Sarma said.

He added that eviction is a continuous process but the issue has come into national focus because of an incident in state.

Earlier last month, an eviction drive turned violent in Sipajhar in Assam's Darrang district, leading to death of at least two men.

Sarma said that even the local Assamese people were also evicted whenever they try to occupy government land.

"There's no community-wise politics, no communalisation on this," he said.

Sarma also said that when the state's tribal people are evicted, the left-liberals "do not cry for them" but when illegal immigrants are evicted, they cry for them.