Karbi Anglong: Huge Scam Reported in Four-lane Project

There has been a massive land acquisition compensation scams in the name of ambitious four-laning project in the Dimapur-Assam portion in Karbi Anglong as the names of legitimate landowners have been deleted, new fake dag numbers created and vast amounts of funds have been released as compensation from the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) have been allegedly diverted towards ghost names.

The four-laneproject of Dimapur-Assam will cover a stretch of 14 kilometers, wherelarge-scale financial irregularities vis-à-vis land acquisition compensation hascome to the fore. While many original land owners have been left out of thefinal list of beneficiaries, a number of fictitious names have crept in.

Accordingto reports, many revenue department staffs including mandals and mouzadars haveallegedly replaced the names of original land owners by their own names todivert the compensation amount, which may run into crores of rupees.

General Secretaryof Land Owners Committee of Karbi Anglong District T Andrew said, "Not just oneor two, as many as nine mandals and mouzadars have inserted their names in thelist of beneficiaries by leaving out the original land owners. We want thehigher authorities to make field verification. I can guarantee that not asingle fake beneficiary would be able to identify the land they are claiming tobe theirs."

It wasfurther alleged that one of the mandals issued three cheques worth Rs. 3.3 lakhapproximately, Rs. 1.90 lakh and Rs. 2.29 lakh approximately from his personalaccount in lieu of the compensation money due that was supposed to be muchhigher.