DIMAPUR, JANUARY 30 (MExN): The Western Sumi Hoho (WSH) today termed it “unfortunate” that the “Kiyevi village land encroachment issue has become a bone of contention, not between the landowners and the encroachers, but between the landowners and the state government.”
“The unbiased opinion of the government, free from prejudice and favouritism, becomes suspect when the encroachers are made to look legitimate and the land owners, illegitimate,” a press release from the WSH stated.
“In view of the deliberate attempt to establish the so called Lamhainamdi village within the village land of Kiyevi, the state government issued status-quo and eviction orders on June 25, 2019, and on the July 8, 2019. The government, however, did nothing to enforce its own eviction order or implement the status-quo. This inaction of the government compelled the landowners of Kiyevi village to force eviction of the encroachers on the November 7, 2022,” the WSH said.
It stated that instead of understanding the compelling circumstances of the landowners, the government, “in a high-handed manner and without ascertaining reasons thereof, set up an SIT.” “The SIT immediately set out to harass the landowners through summons and the ever threat of arrests,” it alleged.
It informed that the Western Sumis held a general meeting on December 12, 2022, at Kuhuboto town of Niuland district and after threadbare deliberation resolved not to co-operate with any government agencies as long as the SIT remained in place.
“The Western Sumi Frontals strongly reiterates the December 12, 2022, Kuhuboto resolution urging the government to disband the SIT and take immediate measures to stop the ongoing wanton destruction and stealing of private property/plantations in Kiyevi village land,” it stated.
The WSH said it is “only in the interest of justice that the biased order of the government having declared Kiyevi village land as disputed area be revoked immediately.” The eviction order of the government must be honoured by stopping all developmental activities in the so called Lamhainamdi village, and the encroachers, evicted, it demanded.
The WSH said that “in the event of the government failing to enforce its own order of eviction, and, instead, adding salt to injury, retain the SIT to arbitrarily harass the landowners through summons or arrests, the Western Sumi Frontals has resolved to resort to its own further course of action.”
