City Correspondent
GUWAHATI, March 2: An 86-year-old man whose land was acquired for construction of IIT Guwahati three decades ago has not been paid any compensation. Despite three court orders in his favour, the government remains unmoved.
More than 2 kathas of land at Silagrant village under Siladendurighopa mouza in Kamrup district possessed by Ranjit Kalita was acquired for establishing IIT Guwahati in 1991. In the process, the land was acquired and his house was demolished in 1992 without providing adequate compensation.
“Being a person of poor strata of the society and being in dire need of money, I accepted Rs 69,725 as an amount of compensation at that time,” Kalita said. The present value of the compensation is around Rs 30 lakh.
Kalita approached the district and sessions court and submitted his representation for his claim in 2005. The court later entitled the petitioner to get land compensation at the rate of Rs 49,999 per bigha – i.e., a sum of Rs 17,600 for the acquired land and Rs 3 lakh in respect of house and building that existed and another Rs 3 lakh for the trees and plants that existed in the acquired land – along with interest and additional compensation.
Following non-compliance of the judgement, Kalita filed a Money Execution Case before the District Judge, Kamrup.
“Due to the unfair treatment by the authorities, I approached the Gauhati High Court in 2015 seeking direction to the authorities for payment of compensation along with interest,” Kalita said. “The High Court in 2017 directed the authorities to provide compensation within a stipulated time but surprisingly the authorities did not do anything as per the direction of the court,” he said.
Kalita said that due to the complete apathy shown by the state government and other respondents in the case, he again filed a writ petition before the Gauhati High Court in 2018 which is still pending.
