An ambitious highway project in Arunachal Pradesh for ensuring faster access to the China border has been mired in a land compensation controversy.
On Tuesday, the Special Investigation Cell of the Frontier State’s police arrested a bureaucrat and two others for their alleged involvement in awarding compensation to fake owners of land acquired for a 30 km stretch of the Trans-Arunachal Highway (TAH).
The TAH is an ambitious two-lane highway project covering 1,703 km from Tawang in the north-west to Kanubari in the east. The project, which entails another 848 km as link roads to major towns off the alignment, was conceived in 2008 for ₹10,000 crore.
The probe cell’s Superintendent of Police Pranav Tayal said a local court gave police seven days’ custody of the arrested trio – former Lower Subansiri Deputy Commissioner Kemo Lollen, the district’s former land revenue and settlement officer Bharat Ligu, and businessman Likha Maj.
A forum of landowners along the TAH stretch from Joram to Koloriang in Lower Subansiri district had lodged a complaint against Mr. Lollen and others, accusing them of siphoning off a major chunk of ₹40 crore sanctioned by the Centre as compensation for land acquired for the TAH stretch.
The fund was routed through the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation.
“The inquiry into allegations of irregularities revealed conspiracy and active connivance of these officers and individuals to misappropriate government money through irregularities in the assessment process, disbursement of excess compensation, and compensation to fake beneficiaries,” Mr. Tayal said.
The Centre had released funds for disbursement to the beneficiaries based on a detailed project report that Mr. Lollen had submitted. “A fact-finding committee established huge irregularities,” Mr. Tayal said.
The committee headed by Home Commissioner A.C. Verma was constituted by the State government in June.
The SIC probe revealed that fake and non-existent people were awarded compensation, and one of the major beneficiaries was Mr. Maj, “thereby implying his collusion and active connivance with officers of the district administration”.
Tip of the iceberg
Bengia Tolum, spokesperson of the deprived landowners forum, appreciated the government’s swift action against the “corrupt officials” and hoped three engineers involved in the land compensation would be arrested too.
“Besides bureaucrats, officials and businessmen, many top leaders too are involved in this scam involving payment of compensation to people who don’t possess land. While many genuine landowners were not compensated, a few were forced to receive on 20-30% of the evaluated amount,” Mr. Tolum told The Hindu on Wednesday.
He cited the example of a landowner named Bengia Tach, who was paid only ₹1.5 million instead of the sanctioned amount of ₹3.4 million.
“This scam is just the tip of the iceberg. Another compensation package of ₹188 crore sanctioned for a 100 km stretch from Lower Subansiri to adjoining Kamle district has not been disbursed to the families who are actually affected by the highway project,” Mr. Tolum said, adding the case needs to be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation for fairer probe.
One bitten, twice shy
Complications with acquisition of land for TAH have apparently made New Delhi wary of similar issues with another mega road project – the East-West Industrial Corridor along the foothills of a strip bordering Assam.
The ₹50,000 crore project is envisaged to connect Bhairabkund in West Kameng district and Kanubari in Changlang district.
During his visit to Arunachal Pradesh in January, Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had made it clear that the corridor project would be sanctioned only when land is provided free without any encumbrance.
In a meeting earlier this week, the State’s Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein reminded officials that the corridor will be constructed only when people owning land along the alignment to donate land without claiming compensation.
“We have to change the compensation mindset if we want development,” Mr. Mein said, asking local legislators and deputy commissioners concerned to create awareness about the importance of the project.
T. Basar, the State’s Chief Engineer (Highway) said the proposed corridor was conceived along the foothills as it is one of the richest regions in terms of potential for agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and other cash crop cultivation.
“This stretch has the potential for establishing fruit processing and packaging industries besides other units due to the proximity with Assam, where a huge market exists. The corridor will also save people of Arunachal Pradesh 2-3 hours in travel time,” Mr. Basar said.