The Meghalaya High Court has directed the PHE Department to conduct a survey of the lands that had been inundated after the construction of the dam for Wahtyngngai Combined Water Supply Scheme near Nongkynrih village in East Khasi Hills.
In an order passed today, the division bench of the High Court asked the department to immediately ensure that photographs of the entire area, including of the parcels of land claimed by the affected landowners are immediately taken by drones to establish the present position.
“Such drone photography must be conducted upon notice to the appellants herein. If reasonable notice of at least two days is given to the appellants, it will be open to the appellants to depute one or more representatives to be present at the time that the photographs are taken,” the court said.
It also directed that the survey should be completed as expeditiously as possible and, preferably, within six weeks from today.
“The completion of the survey in terms of the order impugned will be without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the appellants,” the High Court added.
According to the High Court, the real controversy is as to whether parcels of land belonging to the land owners (appellants) have been lost to them forever or they only remained submerged for some period of time in 2011.
“If such lands continue to remain submerged periodically ever since the construction of the dam, it would tantamount to the appellants having lost their land and the State having, de facto, taken possession thereof otherwise than by the procedure established by law,” the court said.
The next hearing will be held on June 28 and on the same day, the drone photographs will be examined by the court as also the revenue records revealing the plots.
The court was hearing an appeal by Surmamon Nongbri and other land owners who stated that portions of their land had been inundated after the construction of the RCC Dam.
They also stated that though some steps had been taken by the PHE Department for calculating the estimate of the probable cost of land compensation, the same did not culminate into any acquisition proceedings as per laid down procedure, which has deprived them of their property, without the due process of law being followed, or they being paid adequate and fair compensation under the Land Acquisition Act.
Wahtyngngai Combined Water Supply Scheme was intended to provide water supply to 30 villages under Raid Nongkynrih and under Laitlyngkot Sirdarship. The project was accorded sanction under the National Rural Development Water Project Scheme (NRDWP) in March 2007 for an amount of Rs 10,90,08,500. Construction of the dam was undertaken by the PHE Department in the year 2006-07.
The scheme envisages pumping of water from Umiew River at Dkong to the Main Reservoir located at Lumthangding, the highest point among the villages, whereby water shall then be distributed to different villages in the scheme.
One of the major components in the scheme involves construction of RCC Dam across Umiew River at Dkong near Nongkynrih village for creating necessary head for the water to flow to Slow Sand Filtration Plant located downstream of the dam.
Construction of the dam across Umiew River, at Dkong under the jurisdiction of Raid Nongkynrih, was taken up following the permission accorded by the Nongkynrih Village Durbar.
