Mizoram Tension: Kolasib Landowners Launch Indefinite Highway Blockade

KOLASIB: The Land Owners' Association of Mizoram's Kolasib district placed an indefinite blockade on National Highways 306 and 6 from 6 am on September 25, 2024.

They have been demanding that the state government resolve the ownership disputes. The highways connect the capital of Mizoram, Aizawl, with Silchar in Assam.

This is the only road leading to Mizoram as it is the only source through which all supplies come into the state. The Land Owners Association claimed that the people of Kolasib have been disputing the issue with the government over land ownership for over three years now .

The association also claimed that the state forest department has shelved their lands along highways by declaring them as reserved areas.

Claiming that due to the ongoing project of developing highways to four lanes, state forest department has identified both sides of highways for 800 meters of land as Roadside Reserve Forest, an association claimed.

They have done so under a 1965 notification for compensation, it further argued, as the forest department has never announced or maintained these 800-meter areas as Roadside Reserve Forest.

That is 50 years of people's living and using these lands along the highway for residential purposes, farming, and other needs," the association said.

They are appealing to the Mizoram government to rescind the 1965 notification and remove freezes on the privately owned lands, they said. They also want the government to fast-track four-laning of National Highways 306 and 6.

Earliar, rail and road services have been brought to a grinding halt and the condition of the national highways further hampered the fuel and other essential goods transport to Mizoram.

The trains on the Bhairabi-Sairang route had been cancelled from August 21 due to floods and landslides. Railway engineers and workers are working hard to restore the service as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, transportation services came to a grinding halt yesterday as National Highway-306 and National Highway-6 between Kawnpui and Khamrang in Kolasib district remained under bad road conditions.

Truck drivers said the Kawnpui-Sairang section of NH-306 and NH-6 is in such bad shape that transporting fuel is not feasible.

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