Faulty acquisition of land for Balpakram National Park

SHILLONG: Ruthila R Marak, the attorney and authorized person of Arbinstone Ch Marak, the president of Balpakram Aking Nokma Social Welfare Association has written a petition to the South Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner demanding proper compensation for land owners whose lands were acquired for expansion of Balpakram National Park.
The petitioner stressed the need of re-assessing the land which was already acquired without proper norms.
In the petition, Marak said that the government on many occasions resorted to land acquisition for the expansion of the park. The aggrieved petitioner said that till 1995,  352 sq.km was acquired after the land owners were made to sign on blank papers.  However, Marak said in the year 1996, an additional Aking land measuring 114.85 sq.km was sought to be acquired from eight Akings for the purpose of expansion of the park.  Except for 114.85 sq. km, norms were not followed to acquire 352 sq. km.
According to Marak, no proper land acquisition proceedings were followed that time apart from issuing notification under the Land Acquisition Act, 1984 “and unsuspecting illiterate Nokmas were made to sign in blank papers”.
The petition also said they were never informed of their rights to receive money or their entitlement to receive higher adequate compensation.
It is also alleged that in assessing the rate of compensation, government had ignored the rate fixed by GHADC and paid them Rs 1.65 lakh per square kilometer which worked out to be mere Rs 200 per bigha.