By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Major portion of the land acquired by the Government for New Shillong Township (NST) was given ‘free of cost’ to different government departments and institutes including IIM.
As many as 549.57 acres of land out of the total 772.7 acres acquired for NST has been allotted free of cost to different institutions by the State Government. Some of this land has already been handed over to the respective departments.
RTI documents obtained by CSWO president Agnes Kharshiing reveal that land measuring 20 acres was handed over free of cost to the Tourism Department on October 16, 2003, with the secretary of MUDA being the signing authority, for setting up of Institute of Hotel Management at Mawdiangdiang.
Other departments which received land free of cost include MUDA, which was allotted 0.37 acres of land at Dienging on January 2004, Home Police Department which received 3 acres at Dienging on February 2004, Home (Civil) Defence and Homeguard which was allotted 10 acres at Mawdiangdiang on April 2004, Meghalaya Administrative Training Institute (MATI) which was given 5.00 acres at Dienging on July 2006. The Health Department received 2.60 acres f land at Mawkasiang in October, 2007 to set up a nursing institute while another 22.30 acres was allotted to the Department in the same place in June, 2008
Further, 120 acres of land was allotted free of cost to the Education department for IIM at Umsawli Mawpat on October 2008, another 50 acres were allotted to the Department in the same area on May 2009 for setting up EFLU. The Education Department was also allotted 3 acres at Mawdiangdiang on December 2009 for setting up a Central Institute of Hindi.
Among others, 20 acres was allotted to Sericulture and Weaving for NIFT in March, 2010, 54.00 acres was given to the Urban Affairs Department in November, 2010 and 80 acres was handed over to the IT Department on October 2010 for setting up an ITC park.
The plot of lands which are yet to be handed over to the respective departments even though, the same had been allotted free of cost include-1 acre at Umsawli Mawpat to the United Nations Resource Centre for NE, 5 acre at Umsawli Mawpat to the Law department for Judiciary building, 80 acres at Mawdiangdiang to the Sports and Youth Affairs Department for a football academy, 5 acres to the Home (Police) Department for fire service at an unidentified plot of land, 3 acres at Mawkasiang to the Social Welfare Department, 2 acres at an unidentified plot of land to the Home (Police) Department for setting up a CBI office, 5 acres at Umsawli Mawpat to the Agriculture Department among others. As per the RTI documents, the land allotted on cost included a 45.01 acres plot at Mawpat allotted to Civil Service Society at Rs 19,60,636 in May 2009, 50 acres at Mawtari to NEEPCO at Rs 7,58,10,000 in July 2012, 2.27 acres at Dienging to Nagaland House at Rs 5,00,000 in May, 2013 and 15 acres at Mawdiangdiang to Home (Civil Defense and Homeguard) at Rs 3,75,00,000.
The land allotted on cost which are yet to be handed over to the respective institutions include 2 acres at Mawkasiang to the Meghalaya Rural Bank, 15 acres at Umsawli Mawpat to the Reserve Bank of India, 15 acres at Umsawli Mawpat to the State Bank of India, Human resources department, 5 acres at Umsawli Mawpat to NABARD, 2 acres at Mawkasiang to Mizoram House, 15 acres at Umsawli Mawpat to the Central Excise and Custom (Government of India), 10 acres at an unidentified plot to the NBCC Limited, 12 acres at Umsawli Mawpat to the Transport Department for setting up a driving school and 34.85 acres at Mawkasiang to the Arts and Culture Department for setting up of Shillong International Centre for Performing Arts. It was mentioned that the survey of the land was completed before the land was handed over to the different departments and EJ Iawim and SS Mawlong were the surveyors. Moreover, the RTI documents revealed that the plot of land at Mawdiangdiang allotted to the Civil Service Officers Housing Cooperative Society Limited, Shillong was acquired by the Government during 1992-1995. About 12.15 hectare of land was acquired by the government for this purpose from Shrolenson Marbaniang and 6.07 hectare from Philis Pyngrope. The amount paid by the government to the land owners per sq ft is Rs 3.