By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Sensing a scam worth several cores of rupees allegedly involving politicians and officers, the Forest department has asked Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner Akash Deep to get back Rs 8 crore out of the total Rs 10 crore, which the district administration had paid to Umroi legislator Stanley Wiss Rymbai (Congress) for the acquisition of Mawpalai plantations in Ri-Bhoi.
Rymbai, however, said he was authorized by the Umsawkhwan village in Ri-Bhoi through a power of attorney to collect the amount of money for the land allotment for the scheme ‘acquisition of ecologically important area’ in the village.
The Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner said he received an order from the Forest department which said that the land acquisition process should be stopped.
According to sources, the Deputy Commissioner wrote to the Forest department that the whole process of land acquisition began during the tenure of his predecessor M Kharmujai.
Through a recent order, Principal Secretary, Forest, MS Rao, asked the Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner to cancel the land acquisition proceedings besides realizing the money from the legislator.
After the order, the Deputy Commissioner also wrote to the legislator to return the money.
The order was following an internal inquiry by the Forest department.
The nexus of certain politicians and civil servants came to the fore following the inquiry by the Forest department.
The order of the Principal Secretary, issued on October 4, and addressed to the Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner said that the matter related to the Mawpalai plantations was thoroughly examined.
The order also said the 178 hectare area was in the possession of the Soil Conservation department for almost 40 to 52 years.
“The land proceedings initiated by your office is flawed and hence you are directed to take steps to realise Rs 8 crore wrongly paid together with interests,” the order said.
The Forest department further asked the Deputy Commissioner to send a compliance report.
The Forest department initiated the process of land acquisition of Mawpalai forest area to carry out aforestation and to maintain ecology way back in 2009.
There were allegations from certain quarters in the past that Rymbai had purchased the land and gave to the Forest department as in some documents his name was mentioned as land owner while in some others he was mentioned as a lawful attorney nominated by the village authorities.
However, Rymbai asserted that the land belonged to the village and he was just a legal attorney entrusted by the village to get the required amount of money for land acquisition.
Though the land was shown as measuring 178 hectares initially, after a spot assessment of the Government, it was revealed that the actual land in possession was only 92 hectares.
The twist to the whole development is that it was only recently that the Forest department realized that the land belonged to the Soil Conservation department.
(Contd on P-10)
MLA asked…
(Contd from P-1) Meghalaya inherited the area from Assam Government in the latter part of 1950s.
However, Durbar Shnong of Umsawkhwan claimed that the land and forest known as Mawpalai at Sumer in Ri Bhoi originally belonged to them as per the patta issued by the Syiem of Raid Mawbuh and the Syiem of Mylliem dated November 8, 1994.
A no objection certificate (NOC) was also issued by KHADC to the village Durbar, it said.
The claim of the Village Durbar is that the land was made available to the then Forest department of Assam to raise pine plantation sometime in 1953 by reserving the right of ownership with the village.
The condition was also that the plantation should be returned back to the village after 30 years along with the trees.
However, the Village Durbar pointed that instead of handing over the land and forest after 30 years, it was left to the disposal of the Meghalaya Government after the formation of the State in 1972.
The Durbar said that many letters were written to the Meghalaya Government in the past on the issue of handing over the land to the village, but in vain.
Despite the claim of the Village Durbar, the latest internal inquiry of the Forest department said that the land belonged to Soil Conservation department.
It was as per the proposal put forward by the then Chief Conservator of Forests (Territorial) TTC Marak on July 13, 2009, that the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) VK Nautiyal was compelled to initiate the scheme on behalf of the Forest department.
The order to prepare the proposal was made by the then Principal Secretary, CD Kynjing, and the Forest Planning Officer prepared the proposal on the basis of the verbal order of the CCF (Territorial).
Later, the Meghalaya Government constituted a departmental negotiation committee which held a series of meetings.
It was only on March 20, 2010 that the PCCF was asked to submit the re-appropriation statement of Rs 10 crore for the project.
According to sources, the PCCF while submitting the statement made it clear that he had not appraised the viability of clearing Mawpalai plantations and also expressed his opposition to the scheme through an official letter addressed to the Principal Secretary, Forest on March 30, 2010.
Earlier, in reaction to the report of the CCF (T) on the need to pay separately for the trees besides the land, the letter written by the PCCF to the then Principal Secretary, Forest said that in the valuation of the Mawpalai plantations, no amount should be payable for the cost of tress as these were raised by the Government.
There were also negative observations by the auditors of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Shillong regarding the project.
In reply to the audit observations, the PCCF said, “The PCC had moved the proposal initiated by the CCF (T) who acted on verbal orders of the Principal Secretary, Forest and all through the processing of the scheme the PCCF was not given a chance to appraise the proposal. The PCCF was even kept way from the negotiations or ground work on the matter. Thus it was CCF (T) who piloted the entire scheme on the instructions of the Administration department.”
In another twist, the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) has also come into the picture demanding compensation for its land under the area of Mawpalai plantations.
There was no objection on the part of the Ri-Bhoi district administration to pay compensation as demanded by MeCEL.