Land allotment scam amid uproar over eviction drive
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: March 14, 2023 -

IT'S an irony that at a time when the government and Kuki civil organisations are engaged in verbal slugfest over eviction drives in reserved forest areas, five employees of the Revenue Department have been arrested on the charge of allotting/transferring of government land to an individual through gift deed.

In the past too, wrongdoings in the same department had been exposed with the guilty staffers, including retirees sent to jail.

Due to the misuse of official position by the accused employees, the government had to face embarrassing situation after some of the eviction-affected families approached the court and produced documents issued by the department as proof of land ownership.

Interestingly, the land documents were found allotted in locations already notified as reserved or protected forest area, on the river banks, nearby national highways, prime agricultural land, etc., where structural constructions are prohibited.

The legal tangle not only led to stalling of the eviction drives and road expansion plan but also protracted court cases with the affected individuals insisting on payment of compensation commensurate with the market price.

All such misdemeanours have reduced the Settlement & Revenue Department to one of the most corrupt departments in the state and the employees branded as a bunch of individuals who won't fret from favouring any party capable of greasing their palm to manipulate land records.

While no punitive action could be initiated unless one is caught taking bribe money, it seems that there are enough evidence to nail the five employees Of the Revenue Department arrested on charge of fraudulent practice.

As there could be no reason other than the lust for easy money for these employees to misuse their official position and post, they should be subjected to intense interrogation to extract more information about possible similar cases in the department.

The numerous cases related to land disputes pending in the law courts stand testimony to the public's apprehension that the Revenue Department has been reduced to a den of insincere officials and employees.

Moreover, it's known to many that file processing in the department is unprecedentedly sluggish if one does not cede to insistence for payment by the staff concerned under various pretexts.

Thus, it could be safely stated that the involvement of an SDC in the illegal land deal case indicates presence of corrupt employees among the rank and file of the Revenue Department.

Without an iota of doubt, corruption affects all but when it comes to allotment of land documents in government land, designated forest areas and along the highways on the sly then such practices would ultimately threaten sustainable economic development, ethical values and justice, not to speak of the present impasse centred on the government's attempt to protect the forests.

Thus, as asserted by Imphal East deputy commissioner Khumanthem Diana, strict actions should be taken up against any government officials and employees involved in unethical activities for any sort of leniency will only embolden other employees to follow suit and pose serious hurdles to the government's endeavour for streamlining the administration and exposing elements inimical to the idea of a progressive state.