The State government on Tuesday sought a detailed report into the encroached government lands in Tura, West Garo Hills District in order to find an amicable solution to this long pending issue.
After chairing a Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters that the government had resolved the issue in Williamnagar with regards to such lands along with the public and a long term lease was given to the people out there.
A similar proposal has also come up in Tura.
He said the deputy commissioner of West Garo Hills has done an initial study and have submitted a report and they sought the permission of the Cabinet to move forward in finding a way wherever possible to discuss and find an amicable solution to this long pending issue that is there.
There so many government lands which have been encroached by the public in Tura specially Walbagre and Dakopgre area and even near the civil hospital.
“Hence, we have discussed this in details and we felt very strongly that these people have settled there for a very long time and except in cases where the government requires land for important projects like for example if there is any land required for extension for medical purposes or any land required for MPSC office or other places, the government will work towards finding an amicable settlement to these encroached lands. Hence, the Cabinet today has agreed and asked the deputy commissioner to submit a detailed report with all the maps of different areas and a cut off date and rates,” Sangma said.
Stating that the problem has been there for the last 50 long years, the chief minister said the state government had procured different lands but they were not protected and hence a lot of people have started encroaching those lands and they have been living there for the last 30-50 years.
“Therefore, the situation in front of us is to remove all of them lock stock and barrel and capture the whole thing again or come to an understanding amicably where we tell everybody that look there are important projects that government needs land for now, then we will tell you this area we need but rest of the area 95% of the area which have been encroached by the public, people are there and more or less they have settled out there so there is no government project as such going on. Hence, I strongly felt and I have been speaking about this for a very long time that either we pick up a big fight with everybody and we create a bit of a mess everywhere or let us find a way in which we can amicably settle it. So the lands which are clear of any kinds of government projects which we can afford to work and accommodate people then let’s do it and let’s move towards,” he said.
When asked, the CM said that the government is expecting to earn more revenue from leasing out the encroached lands in Tura when compared to Williamnagar.
“(Resolving the issue) doesn’t mean that we are giving that land to them. The land still belongs to the government of Meghalaya but we have a long term lease being given to them which means the government earns revenue also,” he said.
He cited that the settlement in Williamnagar has given the government approximately Rs 2-3 crore per year of revenue.
“Earlier, we had not come to any decision and hence we were in limbo neither settlement, public is in stress, revenue is not coming in and we are not finding any solution. So when the Williamnagar model worked and we saw this revenue coming in I felt strongly we can expand this model to other parts. That is why now in Tura, if we were able to settle, we expect that we should be able to get more than what we are getting in Williamnagar depending on the rates of course. I cannot say what the amount will be but the area is much bigger and more prime and we expect that we should get slightly more revenue from Tura compared to what it was,” he said.
On the other hand, the chief minister said if there are current projects on such encroached lands, the government will have no other option but to request families to evacuate. There are over 10-15 families settled on land where the MPSC building is being constructed.
“We had in an amicable manner had to ask the people to evict from there. Of course, they were not very happy but we had to do it for the larger interest of the state because as I said if the land was empty that’s fine but the building construction had started, MPSC was supposed to be there and MPSC office coming up would help entire Garo Hills region as examination centres would be there. So if there are any big projects where the land is required right now then we will go ahead and tell the public that we need this place.”
“As I said in 95% of the cases I have seen when the settlement has been done people are more or less permanently settle there, there are no government projects going on so we are able to amicably find a solution but as I said we have to come to an understanding in terms of the size, the rate, the demarcation – all those exercises will take place,” he added.
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