Landowners order SARDP-NE contractor off construction area

Dimapur, Feb. 23 (EMN): Land owners and beneficiaries of the 2-lane road of the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North East (SARDP-NE) have issued a statement declaring a “final representation and ultimatum for the ongoing SARDP-NE road project under Sumi jurisdiction.”

Stating various grievances concerning compensation, the affected land owners have declared that no contractor or firms shall be allowed to implement the contract work within the affected jurisdiction until the compensation is cleared. The contractor has been directed to leave the site.

Interestingly, the representation mentioned that the present Madhucon Construction company had awarded the contract work by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) “on the same project, highway, location (abandoned by Gayatri Maytas) and not on any other different location/project.”

The ‘SARDP Sumi area affected landowners welfare committee’ (SSAALWC) issued a copy of a representation on Sunday stating its grievances. The representation was addressed to the deputy commissioner of Zunheboto.

The group listed out a number of demands for the authority to address with prompt positive action.

‘The affected land owners have approached your authority on various occasions to halt the project work till the 2nd phase of damaged property compensation is being paid but of no avail,’ the statement read.

The affected land owners have reaffirmed again that no contractor or firm shall execute the contract work within the affected jurisdiction until the compensation is cleared, the representation read.

‘Any untoward incidents that occur within the mentioned jurisdiction will be borne by the responsible authority and not by the affected land owners,’ and that whether the second phase of the compensation is “under arbitration or not the case/issue has nothing to do with the land owners, it is the responsibility of government authorities to full fill our demands.”

The committee stated that the present Madhucon Construction company had awarded the contract work by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) ‘on the same project, highway, location (abandoned by Gayatri Maytas) and not on any other different location/project.’

“So the question of the administration to allow the Madhucon company to carry on their work without hindrance does not arise in totality. Therefore, the present contractor must halt the ongoing work and leave the site immediately from the date of publication of this resolutions.”

The committee stated that “we all need overall development but no NGOs/security forces cannot command over our land forcefully for any developmental works/projects without addressing the genuine issues with the land owner as we Nagas in general have our ownership rights that nobody can compromise it.”

The committee stated that without halting the ongoing work, the second phase of property damage compensation ‘will not come up in reality as expected’ and therefore had to take the collective decisions.

“Hence, on behalf of affected landowners request your authority to kindly bear with our representation/ultimatum or the land owners shall file PIL,” the representation stated.