Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 24 May: The Tato-II Hydro Electric Project Fair Compensation Demand Committee (THEPFCDC) in Shi-Yomi district has alleged misappropriation of fund during the land compensation disbursement process by the district administration for the 700 MW hydroelectric project being executed by the Northeastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO).
The committee said that the Shi-Yomi administration received Rs 219.18 crores from the NEEPCO in March this year, to be disbursed among the 96 affected families. It stated that “the DC office did not provide the details on compensation disbursement to each family, and nor were the receipt of the final compensation amounts credited.”
Addressing a press conference at the Press Club here on Friday, THEPFCDC chairman Kiran Rinya informed that the compensation amount was deposited in a joint account of the deputy commissioner and the district land revenue & settlement officer, and added that “the administration did not furnish expenditure details to the affected families.”
In 2009, an MoU was signed between Reliance Industries and the GoAP on the project, and in 2011, a letter was awarded, the committee said.
“In 2023, the NEEPCO took over from Reliance Industries. On 19 September, 2023, a public meeting was convened at the DC office,” said Rinya, and informed that “the DC, after receiving the RTI application filed by the committee, said that the NEEPCO has misplaced the original documents from the office.”
He further said that the project-affected families “cannot randomly receive inauthentic amounts without a copy of the final bill award having been made available to the committee and there is a sense of satisfaction among the project-affected families.”
A letter was sent to the Shi-Yomi DC on Friday, seeking the final bills of the 700 MW Tato-II HEP undertaken by the NEEPCO. “It is against the Right to Fair Compensation Act, 2013,” the committee said.
It said that it has “jointly agreed to seek legal remedies under Section 8(1) of the RTI Act.”
“It is to be mentioned that 14,22,500 sq mts were acquired by the authorities in 2011 for the construction of the projectt,” the committee claimed.