Public hearing for construction of new Manipur police HQ held; affected owners not happy
Source: IT News

Imphal, October 16 2019: Social Impact Assessment Unit, Manipur(Directorate of Environment, Government of Manipur) conducted Public Hearing to seek the feedbacks of the affected persons on acquisition of 10.00 acres of land from 9-Chingmeirong Nongpok village for finalisation of the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) Report and Social Impact Management Plan (SIMP) of the proposed construction of new Manipur Police Headquarter at the conference hall of Autonomous District Council (ADC) Bhavan, Chingmeirong as per Section 8 of "Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Social Impact Assessment and Consent(Manipur) Rules, 2014" .

Dr T Brajakumar, Deputy Director, Directorate of Environment; Meibon Phaomei, Corporatorof Ward No 26, Imphal Municipal Corporation (IMC); Samuel, President, Paomei Colony Youth Club (PCYC) and Expert Members of State Social Impact Assessment Unit Manipur viz Prof E Bijoy, O Biren Singh, G A Jaychandra Sharma, B B Sharma and Md Abdul Salam graced the function as presidium members.

Dr T Brajakumar Singh gave the introductory remarks for conducting Public Hearing.

He stated that Social Impact Assessment study is a part of land acquisition process to study the social, environmental and economic impacts before actual acquisition of a proposed land as per "Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013" and "Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Social Impact Assessment and Consent((Manipur) Rules, 2014" .

In lieu of this, state government constituted an independent body having eminent and well experienced persons from varied fields to conduct Social Impact Assessment study where Directorate of Environment is appointed as the State Social Impact Assessment Unit.

He further mentioned that quantitative as well as qualitative data from the concerned stakeholders has been analysing from 25th May 2019.The findings of the study is prepared as draft report of Social Impact Assessment which is placed before the public hearing for their feedbacks and inputs.

Local resident of Chingmeirong who are affected for construction of Police head quarter expressed strong resentment over government decision to acquire land.

For the construction of the Police head quarter a total of 20.81 acres of land is required and for that 10 acre of land will be acquired from individuals.

Land owners of around 21 people including portion of land belong to a private school will be affected while acquiring the land.

Some land owners are not happy with the government idea of acquiring land from the area and questioned the reason for choosing the area as suitable for construction of the Police head Quarter.

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