The Hynñiewtrep Youths’ Council (HYC) has sent a letter of complaint to the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways over the alleged land compensation scam involving the Shillong-Western Bypass.
On January 6, the Sohiong and Nongthliew units of the HYC alleged that two individuals, Phridensing Thabah and Rojen Khyllait, misappropriated compensation belonging to landowners who parted with their land for the road project.
The road project was conceived with the idea of reducing traffic jams in Shillong, with an approximate length of about 38.256km and an estimated cost of around Rs 2,205 crore sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The HYC listed examples of the alleged misappropriation, which amounted to over Rs 1 crore. The victims had received crores of rupees in compensation for land required for the road project. The HYC said that Thabah and Khyllait had convinced the four to sign blank cheques for “official use” and demanded that 10 percent of the compensation be paid to them.
The HYC complaint argued that the four are uneducated and did not know the value of the percentage and thus fell prey to the duo. The pressure group also claimed that there are many more landowners who are in a similar situation but they have been threatened into keeping quiet.
Two days after he was named by the HYC, Khyllait denied the accusations made against him, saying that he is not part of any land mafia, had never taken blank cheques from the landowners and that the allegations were baseless and misleading.
