Our Correspondent
Itanagar: The Union Defence Ministry has approved establishment of a defence estate office (DEO) in the State capital to facilitate quicker payments of land compensation to owners against their lands to be acquired for defence purposes in the State.
The proposed defence estate office would be harbinger of good fortune for land owners along the border areas of the state, official sources informed here on Wednesday.
The Himalayan State shares boundary with Bhutan and Myanmar besides India’s longest 1,080-km boundary with China.
After the 1962 India-China war, the Army had acquired huge tracks of land to set up its bases, bunkers, barracks, construct roads, build bridges and other installations. However, no compensation was given to the land owners till 2018.
The Army had acquired lands in national interest, but no government had bothered to pay the compensation to Arunachal villagers.
Union Minister of State Kiren Rijiju, who represent Arunachal West parliamentary seat, had persuaded with the defence ministry to get compensation sanctioned.
The ministry provided land compensation payment after more than 56 years of India’s war with China.
Rijiju and state Chief Minister Pema Khandu on October 21 last year at Bomdila in West Kameng district, had distributed a total amount of Rs. 37.73 crore payments to the villagers of the district who, have given their community land to defence.
Prominent recipients who had become crorepatis were Prem Dorjee Khrimey (Rs. 6.31 crore), Phuntso Khawa (Rs. 6.21 crore) and Khandu Glow (Rs. 5.98 crore). Moreover, Rs. 54 crore was distributed among 152 families of three villages of West Kameng district in April 2017; Rs 158 crore was distributed among private land donors in September 2017 and Rs 40.80 crore was handed over to 31 families of Tawang district in February 2018.
However, land acquisition cases of Tawang, West Kameng, Upper Subansiri, Dibang Valley and West Siang districts are still pending.
The lengthy process for documentation for land acquirement and compensation payment would be fast tracked with the Centre putting this sensitive border state on top of its security map.
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