Land Acquisition is a serious matter which when gone wrong would cost even very high ranking Army Chiefs. The Nagaland Assembly just concluded appeared to have spent quite a lot of time discussing Road and Railway construction in Nagaland. Unfortunately, there appears an erroneous conception in the minds of many an Authority in Nagaland that Land Owners and Land Tenure System in Nagaland are a heavy New Testament Millstone on the neck of Development in Nagaland.
What a wrong conception and what a pity Nagaland is painted an arduous State unlike the other commonly smooth running States of India on the Issue of land for Development. Nagaland is different from other States of India, Nagaland occupies a special Status in India because Nagas liked it that way.
From 1929 to plebiscite of 1951 to the 16 Point Agreement of 1963 -out of which Nagaland emerged a State of India- the Nagas have aspired for a distinctive position with regard to Land Ownership; the first Mizoram Chief Minister was completely surprised to hear: “there is not an inch of land without an Owner in Nagaland”.
It was the magnificent magnanimity of aristocratic Jawaharlal Nehru to hastily acknowledge the strong feelings of the Nagas for their land (Ura Uvie: Our’s our Land, -the theme of 1951 Naga Plebiscite) that the great democrat introduced a special constitution Article for the Nagas.
The Indian Constitution, Article 371A applies to Nagaland only and none else; It says among others things:
“Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, -
(a) no act of Parliament in respect of-
(iv) ownership and transfer of land and its resources,
shall apply to the State of Nagaland unless the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland by a resolution so decides.”
As far back as 1832, the Nagas were recorded to have resisted every inch of the British Forces proceeding from Imphal to Naogong, with the intension of opening a direct road between Kingdoms of Manipur and the Ahom’s. The Bible records that the ancient Amorites refused Israel’s request to pass through their land to Canan. Primitive or civilized, no one likes others to pass through his Property without consent and every human society has thus Trespass Law.
Just after the World War II, in his consideration of the Kohima Villager’s support for the Government in the war effort, Sir. Pawsey, the last DC of Naga Hills sought to construct a road right through Kohima Village from the Town. Grudgingly the Villagers consented on the assurance that the DC would constitute a Village Committee to work out Compensation to be given to those Villagers whose plots would be used for the Road.
The British in the 19th and 20th centuries constructed Roads and Mule Tracts without payment of Land Compensation to the Villagers. The alien Government constructed roads even with punishment employment as the unquestioned privilege of an occupying Force, but since then a lot of water has flown down all the Rivers of the State and in democratic Nagaland today, in view of its constitutional rights, the acquisition of Land from Nagas without Compensation is at best Atrocious if not, it negates the very historic rights the Nagas have attained constitutionally.
Let the Government set up local Committees to work out Land Compensation values for specific lands, let the Compensation be it small, token or big, but acquisition of Private Lands for Public Purposes, wherever it may be in Nagaland, Compensation has to be paid to the Land Owner, otherwise a Villager has every right to demand -in the future as in the past when a Police Officer asked a Villager returning from his Kheti to give way to the visiting Governor - “let the Chaha use his own road, this is my Road to my Cultivation & back”. Roads when constructed, gradually but ultimately become invariably the property of the public and everybody, even the undesirable or the enemy is free to use it, so private land owners should not be sacrificed for the benefit of the faceless and thankless public.
What a wrong conception and what a pity Nagaland is painted an arduous State unlike the other commonly smooth running States of India on the Issue of land for Development. Nagaland is different from other States of India, Nagaland occupies a special Status in India because Nagas liked it that way.
From 1929 to plebiscite of 1951 to the 16 Point Agreement of 1963 -out of which Nagaland emerged a State of India- the Nagas have aspired for a distinctive position with regard to Land Ownership; the first Mizoram Chief Minister was completely surprised to hear: “there is not an inch of land without an Owner in Nagaland”.
It was the magnificent magnanimity of aristocratic Jawaharlal Nehru to hastily acknowledge the strong feelings of the Nagas for their land (Ura Uvie: Our’s our Land, -the theme of 1951 Naga Plebiscite) that the great democrat introduced a special constitution Article for the Nagas.
The Indian Constitution, Article 371A applies to Nagaland only and none else; It says among others things:
“Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, -
(a) no act of Parliament in respect of-
(iv) ownership and transfer of land and its resources,
shall apply to the State of Nagaland unless the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland by a resolution so decides.”
As far back as 1832, the Nagas were recorded to have resisted every inch of the British Forces proceeding from Imphal to Naogong, with the intension of opening a direct road between Kingdoms of Manipur and the Ahom’s. The Bible records that the ancient Amorites refused Israel’s request to pass through their land to Canan. Primitive or civilized, no one likes others to pass through his Property without consent and every human society has thus Trespass Law.
Just after the World War II, in his consideration of the Kohima Villager’s support for the Government in the war effort, Sir. Pawsey, the last DC of Naga Hills sought to construct a road right through Kohima Village from the Town. Grudgingly the Villagers consented on the assurance that the DC would constitute a Village Committee to work out Compensation to be given to those Villagers whose plots would be used for the Road.
The British in the 19th and 20th centuries constructed Roads and Mule Tracts without payment of Land Compensation to the Villagers. The alien Government constructed roads even with punishment employment as the unquestioned privilege of an occupying Force, but since then a lot of water has flown down all the Rivers of the State and in democratic Nagaland today, in view of its constitutional rights, the acquisition of Land from Nagas without Compensation is at best Atrocious if not, it negates the very historic rights the Nagas have attained constitutionally.
Let the Government set up local Committees to work out Land Compensation values for specific lands, let the Compensation be it small, token or big, but acquisition of Private Lands for Public Purposes, wherever it may be in Nagaland, Compensation has to be paid to the Land Owner, otherwise a Villager has every right to demand -in the future as in the past when a Police Officer asked a Villager returning from his Kheti to give way to the visiting Governor - “let the Chaha use his own road, this is my Road to my Cultivation & back”. Roads when constructed, gradually but ultimately become invariably the property of the public and everybody, even the undesirable or the enemy is free to use it, so private land owners should not be sacrificed for the benefit of the faceless and thankless public.
