CIHCS land issues resolved, courtesy Chief Minister Pema Khandu

Our Correspondent

Itanagar: The long-pending land issue of the Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies (CIHCS) situated at Dahung in West Kameng district, which was hampering the development of the institute was on Monday resolved with the intervention of Chief Minister Pema Khandu.

Chairing a meeting with the CIHCS authorities and the land owners under the umbrella of Singchung Village Council Land Management Committee (SVCLMC) here, Khandu advised both parties to resolve the matter once and for all while explaining the importance and benefits of having CIHCS at Dahung.

With both parties mandating Khandu to come to a decision, it was resolved that the land compensation for the portion of land under occupation of CIHCS, amounting to Rs 5.97 crore as assessed and submitted by the district administration and as decided by the union Ministry of Culture, would be granted to the SVCLMC as per the Jhum Land Regulation, 1947.

As a result no other terms and conditions will be legally binding on the CIHCS, a CMO report said.

Khandu, however, advised CIHCS Director Dr Gurmet Dorjey to immediately take up the matter of construction of boundary wall on the two plots of land under its occupation.

Responding to a proposal of Naresh Glow, former minister and SVCLMC Chairman, the chief minister requested the committee to put forward separate proposal for establishment of new schools in the area which, he assured would be favourably considered by the state government provided land is made on available free of cost.

Glow had earlier suggested that, if possible, the existing land from where the CIHCS is currently functioning should be returned back to SVCLMC along with all infrastructures thereon so that it could be utilized to run either RK Mission or VKV School for the benefit of the Bugun community students.

He, however, like all others present in the meeting, submitted that SVCLMC is ready to accept any decision taken by the chief minister as final.

SVCLMC advisor Sang Norbu Sarai emphasized that CIHCS should carry out the terms and conditions that was initially agreed to between the Buddhist Culture Preservation Society (BCPS), Bomdila and SVCLMC, Singchung while establishing CIHCS at Dahung before its taking over by the union ministry.

He insisted that SVCLMC never told CIHCS to shift to some other place nor was it insisting for compensation. The compensation, however, was an offer from the CIHCS at a later stage which still now is not being insisted upon by SVCLMC, he added.

Meanwhile, the CIHCS Director apprised everybody of the letter of the ministry wherein it had communicated to state chief secretary regarding its decision to provide an amount of Rs 5.97 crores as land compensation.

He however added that the terms and conditions as put forward by the SVCLMC on various matters pertaining to job reservation, award of civil works etc. was not acceptable to the Ministry.

He shared his vision of developing the CIHCS into a Deemed-to-be-University in future, with provisions for enrolling around 4000 students and creating around 400 jobs of various categories.

He however insisted that such vision would materialize only if the land issue is resolved once and for all and further claimed that the only way of resolving the land issue was accepting land compensation as decided by the ministry, the report added.

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