MoRTH quizzes State Govt over compensation
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 22 2017:
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has raised a number of questions to the State Government regarding non-uniform rate of compensation given to land owners for construction and expansion of Imphal-Moreh highway .
Notably, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as chairman had approved Rs 1630.29 crore for development and expansion of a 65 Km long section of Imphal-Moreh highway which forms a key component of Asian Highway-I .
The highway development work would be executed under South Asian Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation's (SASEC) Road Connectivity Investment Programme with loan given by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) .
Although land required for development or modernisation projects should be acquired after following due procedures of the Land Acquisition Act, there is a new practice of purchasing necessary land directly at the current market price for acquisition of land as per the Land Acquisition Act often takes a long time and delays many projects .
But direct purchase of land necessary for development projects requires approval of the State Cabinet .
Even though the price of land to be purchased should be negotiated between land owners and a committee formed for the same purpose with the DCs concerned as chairmen, market value or price of land differs from one place to another .
Moreover, there is no specific price or guideline of direct purchase of land.
There is some variance in the rate of compensation given to land owners affected by expansion of Imphal-Moreh highway .
It was this variance in compensation rate which prompted MoRTH to raise a number of questions to the State Government, informed a source .
Meanwhile, Assam Rifles has informed the State Government that compensations given to owners of land acquired for installation of vehicle scanner were not uniform .
Taking serious note of such variance in the prices of land purchased for different development projects, the State Government has initiated due procedure to frame certain rules which must be adhered to without fail during direct purchases, added the source.