SHILLONG, MAY 14: The Greater Laban Community Development Society (GLCDS) has demanded the state government to take back its land at Rilbong, Kench’s Trace which is allegedly being illegally occupied by the owner of an English daily and former MLA Manas Chaudhuri and start a housing complex for the people living below the poverty line (BPL) there.
In a petition to chief minister Mukul Sangma, the GLCDS said an evacuee landed property with two holdings – No 36 and 39 and re-number 46 and 47 – situated at Rilbong within Kench’s Trace area have been under the occupation and possession of Chaudhuri since several decades from where he has been operating business of profit. “All these years, the proprietor has been hoodwinking the government and illegally occupying the government land,” the petition alleged.
The petition said the land was initially settled with one Intia Zuddin Ahmed, who left for East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) sometime in the late 1950s. “Thereafter, one (L) PN Chaudhuri illegally occupied the properties and his son Manas Chaudhuri continues to do so,” it said. According to the Assam Evacuee Property Act of 1951, the GLCDS said, the property became an evacuee property and PN Chaudhuri continued to occupy the same as a tenant and pay the rent as fixed by the deputy commissioner under the Act. “However, the land property should have reverted to the government of Meghalaya when the North Eastern Reorganization Act, 1971 came into force,” it said.
GLCDS president, R. K. Dutta said the deputy commissioner of East Khasi hills in 1994 had issued notice to Manas Chaudhuri, asking him to vacate the illegally occupied government land. “But Chaudhuri approached the court for protection and relief and since then the matter has been put under the carpet,” he added.
Subsequently in 2001, he said, the additional advocate general of the state had advice the revenue department to file a suit for recovery and eviction of the land occupied “illegally” by Chaudhuri. “However, it is not known till today as to why the government did not pursue the matter in accordance with the advise of the additional advocate general,” he said.
Dutta said the landed property has again come into public focus after Chaudhuri constructed a huge building there. “They (the people) are asking as to how the permission was granted for construction of a building by a person who has no right over the land,” he asked.
A GLCDS delegation met East Khasi hills deputy commissioner Sanjay Goyal on Tuesday and put forward the same demand.
When contacted, Chaudhuri said he wouldn’t want to comment without reading the fine print of the GLCDS petition. He, however, confirmed that the matter has been lying before the court for the past 20 years. –By Our Reporter
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