NEW DELHI, 4 Feb: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued an order on Friday, directing the secretary of the petroleum & natural gas ministry and the chief secretary of Arunachal Pradesh to submit their action taken report (ATR) within six weeks with respect to the complaint filed by the Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) against eviction of Chakmas and Deoris from Mudokka Nallah and Sompoi-II villages in Diyun circle of Changlang district.
The CDFI had earlier claimed that the two communities were being evicted for “onshore oil and gas exploration and development and drilling and production in Ningru oil and gas field in Changlang and Namsai districts for Ningru PML block by M/s Oil India Ltd (OIL) without paying fair compensation under the provisions of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.”
The CDFI had in its complaint on 20 February stated that “the forcible eviction of the Chakmas and Deoris is a clear violation of the Supreme Court judgment in the case of National Human Rights Commission vs state of Arunachal Pradesh & Anr, dated 9 January, 1996, in which the apex court had specifically directed that ‘except in accordance with law, the Chakmas shall not be evicted from their homes and shall not be denied domestic life and comfort therein’.”
The CDFI said that, on 17 January, officials of the OIL and the Diyun EAC had convened a meeting with “third parties who are neither residents of Mudokka Nallah and Sompoi-II villages nor stakeholders to secure consent of the potential victims for eviction without invoking the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.”
