Assn seeks early construction of Potin-Bopi road

ITANAGAR, Sep 17: The All Lower Subansiri Youth Association in a memorandum to the chief secretary on Monday demanded that the state government take urgent steps for early construction of the Potin-Bopi stretch of the Trans-Arunachal Highway and maintain the dilapidated road.
The association also demanded that the government dispose of all applications and representations pending before different authorities, pay compensation along with solatium to the “land-affected people,” and carry out maintenance of the Potin-Bopi road within a month, saying it would otherwise launch a democratic movement.
It also demanded punishment for the government officers involved in excess payment of compensation, saying “the officers involved in overpayment of compensation should be punished as per service rule, besides prosecuting them in the court for commission of criminal offence.”
Stating that the fact-finding committee (FFC) has “opened a Pandora’s box by finding excess and less payment,” the association said “there is less chance of early start of the road construction due to the complex situation created by the FFC.”
It said the government should have issued a notification inviting claims and objections “if any, against underpaid, overpaid and illegal payment” before re-verification was conducted.
“Thereafter, re-verification and reassessment should have been done while attending to claims and objections, instead of re-verifying all the land and properties of the land-affected people,” it said.
“The present complicated situation could have been avoided. Now those people who were satisfied with the payment will also claim more payment on the basis of the FFC’s report, if they find that they were paid less,” the association added.