By - Imkong Walling
Marking territory is built into the DNA— a survival instinct that comes naturally, transcending species. That primeval instinct for acquiring territory, for survival, ensured a steady supply of bloody conflict over the aeons, shaping the way humanity is clustered into, today, geopolitically.
As opposed to the primordial free-for-all, where the fittest, and sometimes the wiliest, prevailed, modern day nation states have laws governing land. Ideally, land laws ensure there is no deceitful transfer of land.
When fraudulent land grab is detected, government authorities are to act as prescribed by law. This did not seem to be the precedent in a state in India called Nagaland, where the state government has squandered away huge tracts of previously public land to private hands, hand in gloves with revenue officials, including even ones designated as protected forests.
However, the recent eviction of illegal occupants from land originally demarcated for expansion of the Dimapur airport has rather dented the notion of a weak-willed government.
The eviction exercise could be carried out after a six-year long legal see-saw in which the government prevailed, a rare occurrence. The land at stake was 17.9 acres in area, roughly 24 bighas, acquired by the state government for the Airport Authority of India.
A parallel police investigation is on, as well, with some 31 individuals, including six government officials, facing criminal charges in connection to the land grab case. The identities of the officials have not been revealed.
While a laudable exercise, the government now has an obligation to recover public land lost through fraudulent manipulation of land records. It is an open secret how the state government has lost prime real estate over the years.
The undivided Dimapur district alone has a history of “government quarters” (housing for government employees) transforming into private residential mansions and neighbourhoods unhindered. State-owned land designated for educational centres have been encroached upon by way of illicit land deeds. Government Higher Secondary School Dimapur and Dimapur Government College stand out as examples.
Roadsides set aside for expansion in future have not been spared. Narrow buildings right on the edge of the roads, without footpaths in between, are other examples.
The most obvious has been the Dimapur railway station, unable to upgrade and expand, after decades of unabated encroachment. Even Defence land has not been immune.
Encroachers get called out and taken to court. But they prevail because they are able to produce supposedly legitimate land deeds issued by the land revenue department.
The question is how? How has encroachers been able to make and produce deeds, also known as “jamabandi,” claiming rights over lands originally designated as state government, railway or Defence lands.
The complicity of revenue officers cannot be ignored. If the government gathers enough will, it would not be hard to pinpoint under whose tenure documents were doctored and presented as genuine.
Now that a start has been made, it is incumbent upon the government to retroactively correct the other ‘land misdeeds’ as well.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
