Following adverse reaction to its demand for land compensation to landowners in the construction of four-lane highway between Purana Bazaar to Chumoukedima, Land Owners’ Union (LOU) NH-29 (Purana Bazaar to Chumoukedima) has clarified that it was concerned only with the landowners’ right to compensation, as was being applied across Nagaland.
In a rejoinder issued by its president K Vishepu Assumi and general secretary Vichosel Rhutso following a news item (“No one will be allowed to disturb 4-lane construction works”) that appeared in Nagaland Post on June 1 and issued by CGBU, the union asserted that the landowners did not encroach government land, but rather the government was encroaching individuals’ land in the name of Right of Way (ROW).
The Land Owners’ Union (LOU) NH-29 (Purana Bazaar to Chumoukedima) alleged that the state government was trying hard to enforce ROW without the knowledge of the landowners concerned.
LOU asked whether Right of Way was applied only in the Purana Bazaar-Chumoukedima stretch of the National Highway or to all other parts of Nagaland while paying compensation.
Mentioning that it was not concerned under whose jurisdiction the national highway from Purana Bazar to Chumoukedima falls, and which was the prerogative of the appropriate NGOs to comment, the union appealed to all right-thinking citizens and organisations to extend moral support to this “just cause”.