The development of National Highway-2 (Doyang to Izheto Village stretch) has been put on hold by the land owners of the VK area, demanding payment for land compensation and damaged property. According to the landowners, the land compensation has not been paid nor has the payment for the damaged property been paid ‘fairly’.
Talking to NLTV, one of the leaders alleged that payment for the damaged property of the area was made known by the then Deputy Commissioner in 2022. However, this was without the knowledge of the landowners.
According to the leader, they filed an RTI requesting information on “Central gazette notification, claims and objections, survey date, and a blueprint,” none of which were provided.
“We were only provided with APAR (Actual Payment Amount Received), which was only for the damaged property,” he said.
Further, in the APAR, within the payment receipt, he claimed that there were anomalies where “people who were to receive 1 lakh, received 10 lakhs and people who were to receive 10 lakhs received 1 lakh instead.”
According to one of the Head GBs, despite being an owner of the land, his name was missing from the compensation list. Another landowner mentioned that his payments were ‘cut short’ by the officials without his knowledge.
Asserting that they are not against development and would want the road construction to continue, the land owners said they are only demanding what is rightfully theirs.
“Of course, we wish to have roads akin to Mokokchung, Dimapur and Kohima,” said one, urging the officials to work but only after due compensation.
The land owners reiterated that they will not allow their lands to be touched without due compensation made.