Dimapur, July 10 (MExN): The Congress has ridiculed and “blanket denial statement” and claims of the Nagaland Chief Conservator of Forest on the encroachment of Hotahoti Reserved Forest by private individuals. The Congress has repeated it demand that the state government must institute a high-level inquiry committee to investigate the matter.
The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee today wanted to know “whether the CCF is bluntly denying at the behest of the people involved in this scandal for his individual benefit or without ascertaining what is factually happening in Hotahoti Reserved Forest.”
The NPCC’s media cell today said encroachers and encroachment activities are in full swing at Hotahoti Reserved Forest. The encroachers have shared and divided lands among themselves, with even specified defined boundaries while farmhouses have been constructed on it, the Congress stated.
It said even paddy fields have been developed on the reserved area. “Even officers of Forest, Industries, Rural Development, and administrative departments are directly involving in land grabbing activities by acquiring huge chunk of land,” the NPCC informed.
“The CCF is contending that the government program would be community-based, involving neighboring villages whereas the facts remains that individual privileged people from Kohima, Mon town, Naginimora, etc are openly and directly taking part in this land grabbing episode,” the NPCC said.
The Congress has cautioned the CF not to mislead the public with ‘irrelevant and baseless statements’. The NPCC has reiterated its demand that the state government must institute a high-level inquiry committee to investigate the issue without delay and bring all the culpable people to book, whether high or low and punish them.
Otherwise, the Congress said, it would take its own course of action in the interest of Naga public.
