by Anup Biswas

Haflong: The NC Hills Indigenous Student Forum held a joint meeting with the representatives of NHAI affected Villages at Ladies welfare Conference hall Haflong to discuss the NHAI pending Compensation damaged by JKM- NKC Company due to the construction of 4 lane East-west Corridor recently.

After the meeting the joint team called on Shri Paul Barua Deputy Commissioner at his Official Chamber to apprise the Compensation and slow maintenance work of NH-54E Nrimbanglo-Harangajao. DC gave assurance to ISF that he would convene a joint meeting at the earliest to settle the matters.

David Keivom, President of NC Hills Indigenous Student Forum while speaking to media informed that both the Railway and NHAI promised that they will paid all the necessary Compensation to the affected families for this all the necessary assessments of the damages were done jointly by District Administration, Council Revenue Department, NHAI, GBs, Land  owner and NCHISF Representatives way back in 2015. 

Now the Railway had already paid all the necessary Compensation to the affected families as Land Development cost to restore the damage land and paddy field but  the NHAI Compensation could not get progress because whenever they approach the NHAI Authorities, they always make an excuse that both the JKM-NKC were in the process of termination.  They had requested the NHAI authorities that all the necessary Compensation should be clear before the Termination of the main Contractor JKM-NKC. Keivom stated that all the necessary Compensation should be paid by NHAI as per their promise before allotting the work to new Contractor. He also said that due to the construction of both NHAI and BG Conversion a lot of Dwelling houses, Land and property re damaged NHAI should not think of changes in 4lane alignment instead the NHAI should focus on the present alignment by using better technology as we cannot allow more of our land and property to be damaged. 

The ongoing maintenance work of NH-54E Nrimbanglo-Harangajao portion work is in very poor standard and the progress of the work is very slow. While giving pressure to the Contractor for speedy maintenance work the NC Hills Indigenous Student Forum held a joint meeting with the representatives of NHAI affected Villages at Ladies  welfare Conference hall Haflong to discuss the NHAI pending Compensation damaged by JKM- NKC Company due to the construction of 4lane East-west Corridor.