Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 30 2009:
Demanding completion of the Andro shopping complex construction work, local people staged a wakat meepham today.
The shopping complex built under the Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns, a scheme undertaken by the Union Urban Affairs and Employment Ministry at the estimated cost of around Rs one crore could not be executed subsequent upon a case pending in Court over a land dispute.
The local people have been urging upon all concerned to settle the dispute so as to complete the shopping complex construction work.
Secretary of All Andro Meira Paibi Association, Sh Padeshori said that the site selected for the shopping complex is the area where Andro Keithel stands now.
Since the past, the area has been a khasland but some people secretly registered the land under their names giving rise to the current dispute, Padeshori said.
The Chief Town Planner has already produced a blueprint of the shopping complex for which Rs 32 lakhs have been sanctioned in the first phase.
Demarcation for the shopping complex was done in 2003 .
Construction work of the complex began in 2004 and so far 10 rooms have been completed.
But another nine rooms and a women vendors' market shed which should be constructed in the middle of the complex has not been constructed yet, said secretary of the Eastern Scheduled Caste Students' Union Sagolsem Tikendrajit.
Following a complaint filed at the Court by Salam Jugeshor of Andro village and 18 other individuals that some portions of the shopping complex site belong to them and that they are genuine patta holders, construction work of the complex has been put on halt, Tikendrajit conveyed.
A written appeal has been submitted to the relevant Government officials to explain whether the disputed land is a khasland or registered in the names of the 19 complainants.
In case the authority fails to take up necessary actions to complete the shopping complex, Andro people would be constrained to taking recourse to law.