Land owners along NH-306 to launch indefinite blockade from Wednesday

Over 2,000 land owners along National Highway-306 in Kolasib district bordering Assam have decided to go ahead with their plan to launch indefinite blockade on the state primary lifeline starting from Wednesday after the meetings with state forest minister and district administration remained inconclusive, a leader said on Tuesday. The landowners have been demanding the state government to resolve land ownership issues and lift the freezing order on lands along the national highway, which they claim are privately owned. They also demanded the repeal of the 1965 Roadside Reserve Forest notification. James Vanlalringa, chairman of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Kolasib District Land Owners’ Association said that they decided to launch agitation by imposing an indefinite blockade on NH-306 at Sethawn area in Kolasib district as the government failed to address their demands over land ownership issue in the past 3 years. He said that there are about 2,300 to 2,500 private landowners along the NH-306 and NH-6 between Vairengte town on the Mizoram-Assam border and Mualkhang in Kolasib district.  NH-306 and NH-6 are interlinked and run on the same route. They are  the primary lifeline of Mizoram, linking the northeastern state with the rest of the country through Assam.  The Centre has already approved the widening project of the NH-306 along with NH-6 in Aizawl district into four lanes a few years ago and the Centre’s National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) has been entrusted to execute the project. The project could not be implemented till now because of a dispute between the state forest department and revenue department, NHIDCL officials said.

James alleged that after land acquisition, when the release of compensation to private landowners was in the process, the state forest department had declared 800-meter of land on either side of the national highway as roadside reserve forest based on 1965 notification and freezed several lands, which were privately owned. He accused the forest department of declaring their lands as roadise reserve forest for want of compensation from the Centre. The JAC chairman said that they had discussed the matter with Environment, Forests and Climate Change minister Lalthansanga and Kolasib deputy commissioner last week but the meetings remained inconclusive. “We have decided to go ahead with our plan to stage an indefinite blockade on NH-306 at Sethawn after our meetings with the forest minister and officials yielded no results. We have been facing problems over ownership of our lands for the past 3 years after the forest department froze them. We have no option than to block the national highway in order to mount pressure on the government,” James told.  All incoming and outgoing vehicles will be blocked during the agitation, he said.

However, essential services such as fire and emergency, medical duty, judicial duty, police and security forces, students and intra-state maxicab service, two and three wheelers, people dealing with water supply, milkman and vehicles carrying sick people, will be exempted from the strike, he said.  Kolasib District Land Owners’ Association said that  the people of Kolasib have been in conflict with the government over land ownership for more than three years, as the state forest department has frozen their long-held lands along the national highway by designating them as roadside reserved areas. They alleged that due to the ongoing widening project of the national highways into four lanes, the state forest department has declared 800 meters of land on either side of the highways as Roadside Reserve Forest based on the 1965 notification because the forest department has a desire for compensation from the Centre or construction companies.