Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, September 28 2009:
Villagers of Phaiyang in Ukhrul district - who have been displaced due to the construction of Thoubal Multipurpose Project - have warned of re-settling in their village if the government fails to compensate them by October this year.
A memorandum to this effect has been submitted to the Chief Minister and Governor today by the Phaiyang villagers.
Talking to media persons today at the Manipur Press Club hall here, the village chief of Phaiyang LK Thang said the Thoubal Multipurpose Project was started in 1980 at Kairang village under the funding of the Central's Planning Commission.
Village land of Phaiyang measuring 41.17 acres has been affected by the construction and uprooting 47 households.
He said the villagers had registered stiff opposition to the construction of the project as it completely devastates the agriculture land of the villagers apart from displacing their settlement.
However, the government had forcibly constructed the dam.
The villagers have no option than accepting the compensation amount from the government to sustain their living.
The 47-household villagers had settled in the nearby villages leaving some of the villagers.
The remaining houses were burned down in 1993 during the ethnic clashes in the hills.
LK Thang said the villagers have lived a hard life in the absence of cultivable land and failure on the part of the government to pay compensation to them.
In 2006, the displaced villagers had tried to establish re-settlement in the village but the government had forcibly barred them from re-settlement, he said.
He lamented that the government authority has not paid attention to the woes of the villagers even as the matter was highlighted to the IFCD Minister and CE of the department.
He said a memorandum which includes 7 charters of demand has been submitted today to the Chief Minister and Governor.
If no positive response is coming forward by October this year, the villagers will re-settle in their village.
Among others the memo urges the government to grant 'special trades' to the villagers in order to rehabilitate the displaced villagers under relief and rehabilitation programme, payment of compensation for 41.17 acres of land, to make correction on the number of households affected by the dam in the government's record of displaced lists.
It also urges the government to include those married between 1992 and 2006 in the displaced lists while also demanding the authority to employ the displaced villagers in the construction company and to include them in the expert review committee.