Farmers accuse headman of land grabbing in WJH

JOWAI: A group of women residents of Mowkaiaw village and one from Kyrwen village in West Jaintia Hills have accused the headman of Mowkaiaw and his coterie in the Dorbar Shnong of forcibly grabbing their arable land at Kyrwen village.
The headman and his group of people have been accused of grabbing three plots of cultivated land belonging to Aniyan Phawa and Adala Shadap of Mowkaiaw village and Marbires Lyngdoh of Kyrwen village.
“We have been cultivating the land for the last four to five generations and we have land documents issued by the JHADC to prove that we are the rightful owners of the land,” said Aniyan’s elder sister Ailem Phawa.
“On March 21 last, while I was busy cultivating crops a group of people from Mowkaiaw led by the headman, Lovingson Laloo, came in seven trucks and some light vehicles and destroyed everything. They destroyed the bamboo fencing and set it on fire, uprooted all the crops and cut down fruits bearing trees including banana trees,” claimed Ailem Phawa.
According to Aniyan, she had met the headman but he told her that even if she had all valid land documents she will never get back her land.