20-day ultimatum to settle land compensation imbroglio
PHEK, OCTOBER 11 (MExN): The Chetheba Town Area Land Owners Association (CTALOA), a forum comprising land owners affected by the Chakhabama-Zunheboto road (Sedzu to Dzulha) 2-lane project has sought the Chief Minister’s attention to settle alleged misappropriation of land compensation fund released by the government.
The CTALOA said that the aggrieved landowners have made several attempts since January 2019 to redress the alleged fund misappropriation at the district level writing to the administration and even approaching the frontal NGOs of the district but to no avail. On August 26 last, it said, “The DC Phek instituted a District Level Verification Committee based on the complaints of Chozuba Area and Chetheba Area and accordingly verification was conducted on the bogus beneficiaries on 5th Sept. 2019 but till date no official report is published for appropriate action.”
A copy of the letter dated October 10, 2019 and released to the media today appealed to the CM to step in, while claiming, “Our helplessness to find justice in the hands of local administration and other higher authorities have rendered us to appeal your competent authority.”
In the letter, it alleged the “administration, NGOs and public leaders of the area” to have acted “contrary to our plight” while depriving them of “damage compensation” due to them.
It based the allegation on RTI papers and held that over Rs 22 crore have been misappropriated out of a total amount of over Rs 74crore.
According to the CTALOA, the properties of many genuine landowners were not taken into account for compensation. It added that many others were either underpaid or overpaid, while several crores were drawn in the name of “bogus beneficiaries,” who had no property/land in the Right of Way (RoW). The amount drawn in favour of “bogus beneficiaries” amounted to over Rs 17.6cr, it said.
In protest, it said that 126 beneficiaries (landowners) have declined to claim compensation, “while many received the underpaid amount with protest.”
As per RTI replies from the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Phek, Rs 73,41,50,785 was sanctioned for the payment of land compensation under Phek portion for the year 2018-19. An interest of Rs. 1,32,52,924 was accrued from the initial deposit and including an amount Rs 2000 deposited by the DC for opening savings account, the amount increased to Rs 74,74,05,709.
Out of this total, it added that Rs 89,85,097 was utilized “towards the payment of land/structure & other compensation to the affected landowners” and an amount of Rs 1,77,33,110 was “utilized” as “Establishment Cost” and an additional amount of Rs 4867.5 deducted as bank charges as on March 31, 2019. Rs 72,06,82,634.5 remained as available balance.
The CTALOA on the other hand contested that the amount of Rs 89,85,097 as indicated to have been utilized for compensation payment was not “reflected in the RTI” while further pointing to other anomalies.
On account of the alleged anomalies, it asked the CM to set up an independent inquiry committee and re-assessing damage compensation, “regularize bogus and unaccounted money and issue fresh sanction for all genuine beneficiaries strictly according to government approved rate of the various categories of compensation and initiating disciplinary action against erring officials and all individuals or groups “involved in the scam.”
It further demanded that compensation payment to all genuine beneficiaries must be completed on or before October 31, 2019 “failing which the Association will be compelled to adopt any stringent action or seek legal remedy.”
