[ Amar Sangno ]
YINGKIONG, 29 Dec: The defense-strategic road construction and upgrade of National Highway Double Laning (NHDL) of the Ditte-Dime-Migging (DDM) road in the border district of Upper Siang has ended up in a multi-crore land compensation scam, allegedly orchestrated by government employees, who were tasked to assess available land for the road.
The 96-Km Ditte-Dime-Migging road is being funded by the Ministry of Defense and executed by the Border Roads Organisation with a total amount of Rs 1,236.1 crore.
This scam came to light after a group of 45 land compensation beneficiaries, headed by Teteng Pangkam of Moying village filed a writ petition in July 2021 at the Gauhati High Court, Itanagar permanent bench, alleging that “exorbitant and high amount of compensation had been paid to few individuals who do not have any land and assets in the Dite-Dime-Migging road from 0.KM to 191 KM of package-I, II, III & IV.”
Taking cognizance of their writ petition, the High Court had directed the state vigilance department to conduct a preliminary inquiry in September.
After preliminary enquiry, the Special Investigation Cell (SIC) had submitted its report to the government on 11 October 2021. Subsequently, the state government had accorded approval for inquiry on 19 October and the SIC had registered a case on the same day (SIC PS Case No.09/2021 under section 120(B)/ 409/ 420/ 471/ 468/ IPC read with section…
