The Arunachal Times: Itanagar: Friday, July 06, 2018.
According to documents obtained under the RTI Act pertaining to ground assessment for standing structures obtained from the regional office, some 87 households along the Potin to Bopi stretch were set to get compensation ranging from a few thousand to crores of rupees per family.
While three
people including former deputy commissioner of Lower Subansiri Kemo Lollen and
businessman Likha Maj have been arrested by the Special Investigation Cell
(SIC) for their role in the compensation scam involving the Joram-Koloriang
stretch of the Trans-Arunachal Highway (TAH) project, it appears that there
have been major discrepancies in the assessment as well as disbursement of
compensation against the Potin-Bopi stretch of the TAH.
Several
people who were compensated for loss of land and property have refused to
accept the compensation amount as it fell way below the amount projected under
the detailed project report prepared by the Lower Subansiri district
administration led by Lollen.
One of those
who refused to accept the compensation is Bengia Tach, a businessman from
Pitapool.
According to
ground assessment done by the Lower Subansiri district administration, the
price for Tach’s property was pegged at Rs 34,73,369, but the cheque offered
was Rs 15,29,000.
“I am set to
lose my residence-cum-commercial building for Rs 15,29000, so I refused to
accept the paltry compensation money,” Tach said, speaking to this daily.
He said his
valuation of the property was Rs 50 lakhs.
There are
many others like him who say that valuation of their property and land was not
commensurate with the actual compensation amount given by the government.
Shocked at
the valuation done by the district administration, information was sought by
private individuals affected by the TAH project. However, a full disclosure of
information was not made either by the state PWD highway department or the
Lower Subansiri district administration, both of which directed them to seek
information from the regional office of the ministry of road transport &
highways (MoRTH) in Tezpur, Assam.
According to
documents obtained under the RTI Act pertaining to ground assessment for
standing structures obtained from the regional office, some 87 households along
the Potin to Bopi stretch were set to get compensation ranging from a few
thousand to crores of rupees per family.
However,
going through the papers, it appears that there have been discrepancies in the
assessment done by the Lower Subansiri administration.
Most of those
set to gain from the assessment done by the administration include family
members of Yachuli MLA Likha Saaya, businessman Likha Maj, Likha Tabo, and
Bengia Bado.
Several
panchayat leaders, gaon burahs and members of the public during an assessment
done on 26 May stated that there were farcical assessment of the properties of
43 individuals, running into about Rs 30 crore – although they did not name
names.
According to
them, the assessment was done even though there are no standing structures, and
that there were five cases of excess billing.
The
information with this daily reveals that family members of Saaya, Maj, Tabo and
Bado are among those 43 names.
Many
individuals opposed to the assessment of the land and property have come together
to form an organization the Yazali Zila TAH Compensation Forum. Their demand is
for reassessment and reevaluation of the land and properties for a fair
compensation.
The MoRTH had
sanctioned Rs 188 crore for land compensation, while an additional amount of Rs
10.57 crore was released for private forests.
The detailed
project reports were submitted to the central government by the then Lower
Subansiri deputy commissioner, following which the compensation amount was
released by the Centre.
However,
there seems to be several discrepancies.
For one, the
assessment seems to have been done not based on standing ground structures or
the actual price of land. Based on the ground structure assessment done by the
district administration, only some influential families seem to have gained
from the entire process.
It remains to
be seen what the fact-finding committee constituted by the government of
Arunachal Pradesh will decide to ensure that only the deserving
project-affected people are actually compensated, and that those responsible
for farcical assessment of the land and properties are taken to task. So far,
the fact-finding committee has not responded to several questionnaires sent by
this daily.
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