Widespread irregularities involving land acquisition for fencing large sections of the India-Bangladesh border in Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura are being investigated by the Union Home Ministry in general and the Border Security Force (BSF) in particular while the Centre remains adamant on fencing the entire India-Myanmar border.
The irregularities and financial misappropriation, allegedly found to be glaring in the case of 14 border outposts (BOPs) in Mizoram, relate to not only central but also state government officials, including those from the National Projects Construction Corporation (NPCC) and the Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC).
Even as reports of corruption and irregularities have remained on government files, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) parrots the same language on fencing along the India-Bangladesh border for years.
In its 2022-23 annual report, the MHA said, “The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border is 4,096.7 km, out of which, 3,180.653 km has been covered by physical fencing and remaining about 916.047 km will be covered by physical and non-physical barriers. All the ongoing works are to be completed by March 2024”.
In its 2021-22 annual report, the MHA said the same – word to word – with the only difference being in the “remaining” fencing. For that financial year, the remainder distance was shown to be 951.70 km.
Documents accessed by Northeast News indicate that following a “discreet inquiry” in December 2023 by the BSF authorities into the acquisition of 85 acres of land at Dawngzawl in Serchhip, Mizoram, was “acquired for an exorbitant amount of Rs 19.60 crore” which was “much more than the initial offer of Rs 75.45 lakh”.
The BSF’s internal investigation revealed that while the “acquired land actually belonged to 17 owners”, the “ownership was converted in favour of four persons”.
The land acquisition process began as far back as 2007 when BSF Deputy Inspector General (DIG) M A Khan sent a “request letter” to the Mizoram government on March 12 that year for acquisition of land “much before MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) approval” which was granted on June 3, 2007”.
The December 5 BSF report revealed that “even before actual verification of ownership, the DIG BSF wrote a letter to the State Govt without any documentary proof that the identified land in question for acquisition belongs to four owners”.
The BSF found the DIG’s actions “suspicious”. He was said to have “colluded” with “some” of his colleagues and “unknown officials of the district administration in aiding Mr C Zokhuma to transfer land ownership of (the) 17 rightful owners for (the) convenience (of) sake in lieu of undue monetary benefit, due to which actual rightful landowners were bereft of their actual share of monetary amount”.
The inquiring BSF officers found that to “accomplish the unscrupulous task, Mr Khan seems to have fraudulently acquired false Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificate for himself”. In 2010, the 17 “rightful owners” moved the court of the Additional District Judge, Aizawl, alleging “cheating in the process of land transfer”.
Meanwhile, land acquisition “process” for construction of 14 BOPs under CADC area in Lawngtlai district was taken up in 2017. The Mizoram government’s Land Revenue and Settlement Department issued a notification in this regard on October 9, 2019, and “Award No. 1 of 2020 was made”.
There were 453 landowners whose land was to be acquired.
New Delhi-based senior BSF officials revealed to Northeast News that the MHA has “already” spent Rs 43.80 crore on land acquisition for putting up 14 BOPs over 88 kms in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district.
The irregularities noticed between 2017 and 2020 forced the authorities, including the MHA and the BSF, to constitute a committee (in June 2022) represented by district and revenue officials besides CADC members and NPCC officers.
This four-member committee held several meetings, but during a July 2023 meeting the officials took cognizance of a March 2022 complaint by a Mizoram Assembly BJP MLA B D Chakma who had raised the issue of “doubtful affected families”. The MLA demanded a “high-level inquiry”.
Chakma’s complaint, which urged the authorities to “put on hold the process (of) granting the Compensation Award” and a “high-level inquiry committee”, focused on three main “points”:
• There were “many doubtful affected families” who were neither natives/inhabitants and nor did their forefathers ever live in the areas earmarked for construction of the BOPs.
• Exorbitant compensation was paid, indicating “nepotism and favouritism”. The list of 50 such families was annexed to the main complaint.
• Fraudulent deed agreements were signed between the parties who were essentially CADC members. Such deed agreements were suspected to be “means” employed to “loot” and “siphon out big amounts of the compensation”. A copy of Chakma’s complaint is in the possession of Northeast News.
Other documents (based on inquiries by the BSF) indicate that almost all the beneficiaries were CADC and Mizoram government employees.
In July 2023, around the time that the four-member committee held a meeting (in July that year), the MHA’s Border Management Division Secretary also meet with senior officials, including those from the BSF.
The BSF officers revealed in the meeting that the “progress of border infrastructure projects being executed by the NPCC is not satisfactory”.
These projects involved the construction of fencing (73.20 km), roads (74.73 kms) and link roads (42.60 kms) in Tripura, 20 BOPs in Mizoram and border flood lights (BFLs) along 341 kms in Meghalaya. These projects were approved between 2009 and 2010.
Now, with the land acquisition programme in Mizoram under serious question, Lanwgtlai Deputy Commissioner Cheemala Siva Gopal Reddy last month wanted the project to be scrapped. But much will depend on what stand the MHA takes on the sensitive issue of border fencing in Mizoram which has been witnessing regular flow of refugees from conflict-torn Myanmar.
