Residents of Gharmurra village in this Barak Valley district have demanded that the district administration evict encroachers from a school’s land, which has been allegedly grabbed by locals.

Gharmurra MV School headmaster Prabir Kumar Das on Wednesday said they had informed deputy commissioner Keerthi Jalli. The school is located along the state’s border with Mizoram.

School managing committee chairman Bijan Kumar Das said it was established as a lower primary school in 1937 on forest land at Gharmurra Part-I village. After the request of the then headmaster, Mahendra Chandra Das, the Cachar divisional forest officer donated eight bighas for the school in February 1940. In 1960, it was upgraded to a middle vernacular school.

At present, it has 341 students and six teachers. It is the only educational institution in the area for the indigenous people living along the border, Das said.

To meet expenditures like fencing, painting and school furniture, the committee decided to give on lease some portion of unused land to locals for a year for cultivation but this system was stopped later, Das said.

He said around seven bighas has been allegedly grabbed by six persons, who have started cultivation. The teachers’ quarters have also been damaged and the land allegedly taken over, he added.

Barada Charan Das, a former student, now an octogenarian, said the occupied land should be vacated immediately. Another former student, Abdul Haque Barbhuiya, said they had written to the deputy commissioner thrice since November last year but no action had been taken so far.

Gharmurra zila parishad member Saleh Ahmed Mazumdar said they would stage a demonstration in Hailakandi town to attract the district administration’s attention.

Katlicherra legislator Suzam Uddin Laskar also requested Jalli to take action.

Gharmurra forest ranger J. Kamei said senior officials had been apprised of the matter for further action.