Shillong, May 15: Former Meghalaya legislator Manas Chaudhuri today rubbished allegations made by the Greater Laban Community Development Society (GLCDS) that he was a “land grabber” while claiming that the allegations were made in view of the district council polls, which are scheduled for early next year.
All allegations have no substance. All are wild, malicious and baseless, and have been made to harm my reputation. Neither me nor my family members own any plot of land in Meghalaya in spite of three of our generations having settled here,” Chaudhuri told reporters here.
Yesterday, the society had petitioned chief minister Mukul M. Sangma alleging that an evacuee landed property at Rilbong, covered by two holdings (No. 36 and No. 39 — re-numbered 46 and 47) — “is still under the occupation and possession” of the proprietor of a local daily.
Informing that the matter was still under the deputy commissioner’s court, the former legislator said he was not a tenant of the house on the landed property
“My father (late P.N. Chaudhuri) was the tenant since June 1953, and the land was notified as an evacuee land by an act of Parliament, which was adopted by Assam in 1951, and subsequently by Meghalaya in 1973.
As per the Evacuee Property Management Act, 1950, he said, an evacuee property management committee is required to be constituted by the deputy commissioner.
“Till the 1970s, my father used to pay rent to the committee, which was under Assam. But Meghalaya had never constituted the committee, and hence the rent could not be paid. There was no mechanism,” he added.
Moreover, he said in 1981 he had written to the then East Khasi Hills deputy commissioner informing him about the history of evacuee land, and had requested the administration to conduct a survey and a demarcation of the 6,000 sq.ft. plot. However, there was no response to the letter, he added.
“But it was not until 1994, when the administration served us with a resumption notice. We then approached the high court, which directed that the case should be first head in the court of the deputy commissioner.
He said the case has been dragging for nearly 20 years as the government, which is the complainant, has been slow. “The government, under the law, has no case. But I want the matted to be expedited and the case to be solved.
Claiming that the allegations were made by vested interests, he said, “I strongly suspect that the allegations were leveled by vested interest groups keeping in mind next year’s district council polls to show that they are the protector of the indigenous people. This is cheap and demeaning.
He also said that the issue on the landed property had been vigorously raised in 2002 by former chief minister late E.K. Mawlong.
Chaudhuri said he “presumed” that late E.K. Mawlong had pursued the issue because his (Chaudhuri) daily had vigorously reported about the so-called Meghalaya House scam in 2001, which also led to the downfall of the Mawlong-led government.(SP News)
