‘MERF project rendered families landless in SGH’

TURA, May 14: Former Siju-Rongara MLA, Rophul S Marak, on Sunday sought that an investigation should be carried out, alleging that there is gross violation of human rights being perpetrated by a village Nokma from South Garo Hills in connection with the Meghalaya Environment Restoration Fund (MERF) has led to some 15 families being deprived of their lands which were in their possession for decades.
A complaint in this regard has been submitted to the Deputy Commissioner where the MLA named the Nokma of Rongkandi Adiagittim and some others to be responsible.
“The instance that I refer to is with the implementation of the Meghalaya Environment Restoration Fund (MERF) that is meant for afforestation efforts in areas that have been affected by rat hole mining, as directed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). While the move of the NGT and the MERF is wholly welcomed, I would like to state that it is with the implementation part and where these projects are being implemented that I have an issue with,” Marak said in his complaint.
“The families that have been affected were provided these lands by the Nokma as is the system in our culture but no pattas were given. The settlement of these families took place more than 4 decades ago with the given lands being used for setting up plantations as well as planting trees, fruit bearing and non fruit bearing,” Marak added.
According to him, it was shocking to know that these lands which have been identified for the implementation of the MERF project and have been nurtured over decades have now been mowed down for planting trees under MERF. “How can that be made sense of?” he added.
Marak, also said that areas which have been affected or barren should have been targeted for implementation purpose and not those that already have green cover.