Aizawl, Apr 26: The flagship Multi Modal Kaladan Border Roads project has come up short against the local landowner’s ire over failure to compensate them for their lands.
Tension prevails in the Indian boundary district of Lawngtlai here after the Mizoram government sent a strong contingent of police to guard the flagship Kaladan Multi Modal road project today. The state decided to provide security after the land owners organised as the Indo-Myanmar Border Roads Land Owner’s Association (IMBLOA) imposed a ‘stay’ on the continuing road cutting works going on Thursday.
The multi-crore project is spearheading government’s Look East Policy (LEP) for facilitating international trade with India’s eastern neighbours.
“We have cooperated with the government and our only demand is that the government should issue the notification specifying the land owners and their lands. We also want the Deputy Commissioner of Lawngtlai district to be empowered as the District Collector, two simple things that the government has failed to do so far despite all our requests,” said F Lalluia, secretary of the Lawngtlai based IMBLOA.
These are not exactly demands but simply what the government needs to do to operationalise the process of giving the land owner compensation for their lands which has been requisitioned for the flagship project.
He said that an official committee which included the PWD, local social organisations and land ownershad been set up by the DC which had surveyed and verified all the land owners, ownership documents and was agreed upon by them last July.
But even after a year the government had failed to come up with the two demands mentioned above which made the landowners feel that the government is not serious about processing their just dues.
“Now they have all but finished cutting the road and they have failed to give us our dues.” He said.
“We are afraid of the government force but whether we are afraid nor not we will have to stand up for our rights. In fact we take this silent treatment of our two demands as a matter of discrimination against us as we are of a smaller and less powerful community,” he said.
Tension prevails in the Indian boundary district of Lawngtlai here after the Mizoram government sent a strong contingent of police to guard the flagship Kaladan Multi Modal road project today. The state decided to provide security after the land owners organised as the Indo-Myanmar Border Roads Land Owner’s Association (IMBLOA) imposed a ‘stay’ on the continuing road cutting works going on Thursday.
The multi-crore project is spearheading government’s Look East Policy (LEP) for facilitating international trade with India’s eastern neighbours.
“We have cooperated with the government and our only demand is that the government should issue the notification specifying the land owners and their lands. We also want the Deputy Commissioner of Lawngtlai district to be empowered as the District Collector, two simple things that the government has failed to do so far despite all our requests,” said F Lalluia, secretary of the Lawngtlai based IMBLOA.
These are not exactly demands but simply what the government needs to do to operationalise the process of giving the land owner compensation for their lands which has been requisitioned for the flagship project.
He said that an official committee which included the PWD, local social organisations and land ownershad been set up by the DC which had surveyed and verified all the land owners, ownership documents and was agreed upon by them last July.
But even after a year the government had failed to come up with the two demands mentioned above which made the landowners feel that the government is not serious about processing their just dues.
“Now they have all but finished cutting the road and they have failed to give us our dues.” He said.
“We are afraid of the government force but whether we are afraid nor not we will have to stand up for our rights. In fact we take this silent treatment of our two demands as a matter of discrimination against us as we are of a smaller and less powerful community,” he said.