Affected people threaten to occupy their evicted land

Four-laning of NH 15

A Correspondent

Biswanath Chariali, May 3: The affected people whose thousands of bighas of land were acquired by the Government of India for the purpose of four-laning of NH-15, have decided to occupy their evicted land on May 7. This was announced on Thursday at a press meet by 15 No Rastriya Ghaipath Kshatigrasta Suraksha Eikyamancha, Sonitpur and Biswanath districts.

 The apex body of the affected people of Biswanath and Sonitpur districts alleged that the government had been dilly-dallying in the name of paying out compensation to the land owners of 132 villages from Dolabari, Tezpur to Rajgarh, Gohpur. The government fixed the amount of compensation applying the old Land Acquisition Act, 1983 though it should have been calculated by applying the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, they added.

 Although the award was approved in the year 2012 itself, neither the compensation was paid to the affected land owners nor was the possession of land taken prior to enactment of the said act. Significantly, the government had appointed an arbitrator to deal with the issues bowing to the pressure of the organization, but he is also going to retire this month resulting in more complicacies in the matter. Therefore, the Eikyamancha has decided to stop the ongoing work of four-laning and also occupy the evicted land. The press meet was attended by Lakhyajit Das, Ghanashyam Hazarika, Ananta Hazarika, Palash Borkakati, Akan Saikia and others.