By Noorshafi A K for TwoCircles.net,
The Narendra Modi government’s recent decision to set up national-level Sports Academies has been highly appreciated and is being welcomed with applause and happiness in the sport loving state of Manipur.
The state government promptly selected Loushi Loukol near Yaithibi Mountain in the Thoubal district as the site for the proposed national level sports university. The generous Rs 100 crore fund from the Centre is now on its way to buy away the love, care and age old relation that the three communities – Meitei, Naga and Muslims – residing at the proposed site have been sharing for long.
Yaithibi Loukon – east & west to NH 102
The ‘Yaithibi Loukon’ adjacent to Sora is agricultural land surrounded by five villages comprising various communities – Nagas (Maring at Koijam and Laiching Minou village), Meitei (at Langthabal), Meitei Christian (Yaithibi Khunou village) and Muslims (at Sora). These communities have shared age old relations of love, care and respect and are the real symbol of unity among various communities.
The unconstitutional forced land acquisition includes housing site, churches, qabristan, mosques, agricultural land and forest land. The acquisition affects the following 5 villages: Koijam village (95 houses of Maring Scheduled tribe); Laiching Minou village (150 houses of Maring Scheduled tribe); Sora village (1402 houses of Muslim minority community); Lanthabal village (98 houses of Meitei community) and Yaithibi Khunou village (7 houses of Meitei Christian Community).
Affected areas of Sora village
Had they been animal and bird species inhabiting the area, they would have come under the ‘IUCN Red List’ and preserved well. Alas, these are but humans.
These villagers depend for their survival upon their agricultural works. The proposed land acquisition will affect an area of approximately 642 acres comprising 380 acres of agricultural land, 100 acres of habitat areas and 162 acres of hill/forest areas. Locals have been opposing the proposed site and have also started protests demonstrations against the illegal acquisition of their land.
Interestingly, the protest is not against the government’s plan to set up a National Sports University (as reported by The Sangai Express, a leading Imphal based daily, on Tuesday, November 25, 2014) but only to save their land, which has been their only means of survival.
In fact, the villagers, since time immemorial, have been sports loving people. They are not against the proposed Sports University but against the arbitrary acquisition of their village land.
Hill side of ‘Yaithibi Loukon’
Bypassing procedure
At a public meeting on August 24, the Chief Minister’s announcement of the proposed site surprised the villagers. The decision was taken by the Government of Manipur without informing the affected farmers. The proceeding which was initiated without following the due process of law affects lives and properties of thousands in the locality. The study of social impact assessment, its public hearing and its publication which are, in fact, mandatory before the proceeding, were not carried out. The government has also failed to comply the provision guaranteed under Sec 4, Sec 5, Sec 6 and Sec 7 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
Initiating land acquisition without informing the matter itself violates the principle of Natural Justice. It also violates the Manipur Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2014, which was enacted primarily to conserve the paddy land and wetlands in order to promote agricultural products in the state.
The proposed site includes the areas, which fall within the jurisdiction of the Hill Areas of Manipur but the Hill Areas Committee – comprising 20 MLAs elected from the hill areas – was not consulted. The Article 371C of the Constitution and the subsequent Presidential Order issued on June 20, 1972 – known as the Manipur Legislative Assembly (Hill Areas Committee) Order, 1972 – mandates that the use of land and allotment of land in the Hill Areas of the state of Manipur is absolutely within the purview of the Hill Areas Committee.
The government, therefore, has failed to comply with the provisions of Art 371C of the Indian Constitution. A vast area of forest is also affected without complying the provisions and rules of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and its rules as the Forest Rights Committee was not informed.
Options and what next?
Alternatively, there are many other suitable lands for the establishment of the Sports University in six other districts, particularly, Koutruk village in Imphal West district, for which the villagers are ready to donate the land, even free of cost. The Koutruk village has even approached the government offering land and is still ready to offer.
Despite such offer, it is not clear why the government is keen on this paddy land only, where the poor population depends for their livelihood without any other means for their survival? This certainly raises a serious question on the real intention of the state government against these small communities of Meitei, Muslim and Naga, who are tied together by the age old relations of love, peace and harmony.
If at all, despite all such unconstitutional steps and violations of human and other legal rights, the project is allowed to proceed, the same sports university that should reap the talents of youths may instead end up as an event of shame in the history of the country as the indigenous people will be fighting for their rights till suicide becomes a better option to them.
The recent events of state police using force to scare away a peaceful rally (on November 24) scuttling their voices and throwing of Holy Qur’an inside the Masjid simply shows that the government would go to any extent to evict the concerned people and snatch their lands leaving them as victims of state’s forceful acquisition of agricultural land.
This is an act of direct challenge to the right to life of the farmers.
For the farmers, having their lands forcibly taken away, their religious faith, beliefs and, in fact, their very survival destroyed, it might be counter-productive to the state’s pride about her diversity.
No doubt, a Sports University could actually help the youth, especially in Manipur, to make a career out of sports and would give birth to many more Mary Koms but it should not be at the cost of poor helpless farmers and that too when there are other suitable and better options.
The law has provisions for state taking over privately held land for public purposes but not for making the Constitution of the country a mockery. The Manipur government has miserably destroyed and defeated the spirit and intention of the mandatory provision of Art 371C of the Constitution. The right to freedom of religion (Art 25-28), Right to Life (Art 21), and the Right to Property (Art 300A) will become a travesty in Manipur if the Churches, Mandirs, Masjid, Qabristan, Cemeteries etc along with main housing sites including paddy fields and forests are converted into Sports University without following due process of law.
Will the impuissance of the poor farmers against the armed State sponsored tyranny and atrocities leave them with no other option but to surrender their only means of survival? Will Arun Jaitley’s eagerness to do something for the development of sports in India be paid with the lives of thousands of poor farmers belonging to a peaceful community of farmers comprising various religious beliefs in Manipur?
Why is the government willing to sacrifice more and more agricultural land in the name of development, a suicidal step for the state’s economy? Even if the site has to be fixed in this area, for whatever the reason may be, the farmers here are ready to compromise their agricultural land for the sake of the University if it is shifted on the other side (the western side) of the NH-102 that divides the lake. The eastern side of the highway has houses and also limited agricultural field while the western side is much wider. In this case, the government must promise to give jobs of the Sports University to each farmer’s household irrespective of their education. But the government insists to stick with the narrower but inhabited area which clearly leaves the poor helpless. It is beyond their understanding. The real motive of local politicians and concerned authorities is indecipherable by any common citizen.
This simply makes one wonder if the scheme has anything to do with the affected community?
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(Noorshafi A K is a Stephanian graduate. He can be contacted at [email protected] )