[ Pisi Zauing ]
MIAO, 28 Feb: Responding to the memorandum submitted by the Miao Singpho Ramma Hpung (MSRH), the youth wing of the United Miao Mission, pertaining to the unabated encroachment on public land in Miao township, ADC Sunny K Singh on 25 February constituted a sub-divisional level ‘Miao anti-land encroachment committee’ under the chairmanship of the EAC (judicial), with the Miao PS OC and the SK (land department) as its members.
The anti-land encroachment committee has been empowered to conduct physical survey of the whole township area to locate encroachment on public land, and shall conduct eviction drive as and when directed by the ADC.
The committee will conduct coordination meetings, carry out inspection drives on a monthly basis, and submit a detailed report on the status of encroachment on public land in the township.
The committee has been given the authority to take suo moto cognizance of any encroachment on public land in the township.
The committee will also prepare a consolidated list of all public land currently not under any occupation and are lying vacant.
The ADC has directed the committee to submit its report on or before 15 March, without fail.
The ADC in an executive order stated that public utilities such as compounds of schools, hospital/health centres, government department offices, and government quarters “are experiencing tremendous encroachment, wherein illegal structures are being erected inside the compounds.”
In his order, the ADC stated that encroachment on public land or appropriating it for private purposes “is a crystal clear contravention of the Arunachal Pradesh Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 2003, and also severely diminishes the utility of the said public land.”
“It even undermines the scope of further expansion of public utilities if required in future,” the order reads.
The MSRH has expressed gratitude to the ADC for taking up the encroachment issue seriously.
“Our Singpho elders donated sufficient land to government departments, so that public utilities can be expanded when required. But the mindless encroachment has undermined the scope. The government departments don’t have any land left for expansion of their establishments, which has become a cause of great concern. Without land there cannot be development,” MSRH president Gamseng Singpho and secretary-general Pisi Zausan said in a statement.
The youth wing also appealed to the encroachers to cooperate with the local administration and vacate encroached public land voluntarily to avoid eviction.
