[Amar Sangno]
ANINI, 20 Mar: With the government stepping up efforts to expedite hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh, allegations have surfaced that rampant illegal structures are being built overnight in project-affected areas, thereby establishing ‘ghost villages’ to falsely claim compensation money.
Earlier, these ghost villages were seen along the Trans-Arunachal Highway (TAH), which was marred by a multi-crore land compensation scam, leading to the arrest of many government officials, landowners and middlemen for fraudulently looting the government exchequer.
Apparently, the ghost of the infamous TAH land compensation scam has resurfaced in the vicinity of the Athunli 680 Mega Watt (MW) Hydroelectricity Project (HEP) in Dibang Valley district, as hundreds of semi-concrete and concrete houses are being built every day, ahead of the land baseline and property survey for the Athunli HEP.
The state government had signed a memorandum of agreement with the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) – a Himachal Pradesh-based public sector undertaking – in August 2023 for the Athunli HEP.
The project covers a total area of 247.34 hectares (24.73400 square metres), under which seven villages fall – Athunli, Malinye, Apanli, Sunli, Gunli, New Echanli, and Chiya.
According to sources in the district administration, there are only 40 households with a population of 240 recorded in the seven villages that would be affected by the Athunli HEP.
The Arunachal Times has accessed a copy of a notice issued by Dibang Valley Deputy Commissioner Pagli Sora on 4 February, 2025, in which the DC declared all rampant construction and structures illegal, and stated that “they shall not be assessed for compensation.” The DC further said that all such construction after the publication of the preliminary notification is illegal.
The DC had issued the preliminary notification on 4 October, 2024 for the land acquisition process, invoking Section 11(4) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013.
Representing the project-affected families/persons, Athunli Project Affected Peoples Committee (APAPC) chairman Nadim Lombo claimed that the district administration had issued the preliminary notification without properly providing information to the villagers.
“Without informing the villagers, how would we know you have issued preliminary notification? We know the law under Section 11 (4) of the RFCTLARR Act, 2013. The district administration is doing illegal with us, we not doing illegal,” Lombo claimed, and added that building structures around the project-affected areas is not illegal.
On being asked about the objective behind constructing massive structures in and around the Athunli HEP-affected areas, Lombo said, “Look, I personally believe that we cannot deny building a dam. Already MoA has been signed, money has been given. No matter how we protest and shout, no dam slogans, it paid no heed. So, we decided that, since we are losing our properties (land), why don’t we create assets or construct structures to claim compensation?”
Lombo argued that constructing illegal structures to claim compensation is not corruption but the people’s right. “It’s not a kind of corruption. If you cannot compensate for our properties, scrap the hydroelectric project from our area,” he demanded.
He further argued that nowhere in the RFCTLARR Act is it written that “you cannot construct structures under project-affected areas.”
“It is obvious that building structures is to claim compensation amount,” he added.
Lombo also admitted that 25-30 percent of the structures’ owners are from Roing.
It is reported that, just after the issuance of the preliminary notification for the baseline and property survey by the district administration, which was scheduled on 15 February, 2025, the APAPC had raised objection, saying that the survey should not be done before obtaining forest and environment clearance.
The district administration had reportedly furnished forest clearance status report, as shared by the SJVN Ltd, to the APAPC members, and subsequently clarified that the baseline survey and property survey are part of land acquisition under Section 16 (1) of the LARR Act, 2013, which is a time-bound process and cannot be delayed.
In spite of the DA’s clarification, the APAPC and the project-affected villagers had boycotted the survey team which had arrived at the project site on the scheduled date. The DA convened a meeting on 24 February, 2025, which was attended by the APAPC members; however, the meeting was inconclusive.
It is alleged that boycotting and objecting to the baseline and property survey by the project-affected people is a delaying tactic to build more illegal structures. However, Lombo denied the allegation.
Unverified sources informed this daily that the owners of the illegal structures are now pressing the district administration to include all those illegally constructed structures in the property assessment, and that failure to do so would invite strong resistance against the proposed 680 MW HEP.
In the recent budget session, while replying to the budget discussions, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein had declared the current decade the “decade of hydropower.” The DCM highlighted how on-time completion of the HEPs in the next decade or so would make Arunachal the richest state in terms of per capita income.
