People displaced by a greenfield airport in Arunachal Pradesh have decried the denial of access to a member of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) currently visiting the State to investigate allegations of non-implementation of minority schemes for the Buddhist Chakmas.
NCM member Rinchen Lhamo is on a tour of the State, which began on May 17 and ends on May 22.
Settled by the Indian Government in the 1960s after they were displaced by the Kaptai Dam in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, the Chakmas reside in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh – Changlang, Namsai and Papum Pare. Ms. Lhamo’s schedule has been restricted to Changlang and Namsai in the eastern part of the State.
Papum Pare, encompassing State capital Itanagar, is in western Arunachal Pradesh.
The Chakma Displaced Families Justice Demand Committee (CDFJDC) said the NCM member’s schedule was drawn up deliberately to keep her away from the airport-affected families.
“Those accused in the Hollongi airport displacement scam, in which 156 Chakma families were displaced, hatched the conspiracy to prevent us from meeting Ms. Lhamo,” CDFJDC president Koruna Sindhu said.
According to the 2011 Census, Papum Pare has 1,562 Buddhist Chakmas considered the most vulnerable within the community.
“The Chakmas of Papum Pare district have been made more vulnerable because of the misappropriation of ₹36-crore given for rehabilitation and resettlement of the 156 Chakma displaced families by some Chakma leaders in collusion with a few State government officials,” the CDFJDC said.
Ms. Lhamo’s visit apparently followed a meeting between her and some Chakma leaders on March 28. Among them, the CDFJDC said, was Mizoram-based Paritosh Chakma, one of the main accused in the Hollongi scam.
The NCM member’s itinerary was later prepared on the basis of the inputs provided by Drishya Muni Chakma, an Arunachal Pradesh-based student leader who had allegedly withheld a fact-finding report on the airport displacement scam.
Hearing a petition on the alleged scam, the Gauhati High Court on April 28 directed the Pamum Pare District Collector to submit an affidavit underlining how he had exercised his power to transfer the rehabilitation and resettlement money released by the Centre to a reportedly dubious committee. The money was supposed to have been distributed among the 156 affected families directly into their bank accounts.
