by Anup Biswas

 Haflong  : To discuss the long pending Railway Compensation demanded by Indigenous Students Forum and Indigenous Women Forum a Joint meeting of District Administration, Revenue, Railway, IWF & ISF was held in the conference hall of Deputy Commissioner Haflong on Tuesday.

The meeting was chaired by Shri Amitabh Rajkhowa,  ACS,  Deputy Commissioner Dima Hasao.

In the meeting Shri Pallab,  Deputy Chief Engineer said that he was appointed by General Manager to represent the Railway in the reassessment of the affected Villages. Shri David Keivom, President,  NCHISF made their stand clear that they could not accept for reassessment because joint survey and assessment was done several times with the District Administration, Revenue Department, the Railway Authority and the NCHISF Representatives way back in 2015 and the Railway had already paid  Zeerat value (1.78 Cr). He also asked the Railway that why did the Railway want for reassessment after they had agreed several times to release the Compensation. He said that as the Railway has no other excuse now after 5 years once again they have proposed for re-assessment of the damages was another delaying tactic of the Railway.

DC informed the Railway Authorities that reassessment will not be necessary since he had already written a letter to the General Manager, Construction NF Railway on 28th February, 2018 informing him that the Land Development charges was examined and found to be Genuine.

After a long discussion the meeting decided to jointly visit the affected Villages on 29th June as the Railway Authority agreed to release all the necessary Compensation after the Submission of the Committee reports.