Complaint against Council members for taking plots meant for landslide affected families

Aizawl DC Dr. Franklin Laltinkhuma said his office will also file criminal complaints against the four LC members (including the chairman) either with the Police or the Anti-Corruption Bureau through the state’s Vigilance Department.

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A major landslide in the hill city’s Laipuitlang locality had killed 17 people and destroyed at least 10 residential buildings in May 2013.

Later, a major portion of an eastern locality had also been in danger of slipping into the valley below after a large tract of land began to sink, displacing scores of families.

The state government had earlier purchased for Rs 1 crore an area big enough to host 100 homes to resettle victims of catastrophic landslides and landslips in.

It had also drawn up a plan demarcating space for 100 houses as well as various civic amenities. So far, 65 plots have been allotted to victim families while 20 other families have applied for the plots.

But four members of the Local Council, an elected body charged with the civic administration of the locality where the land is located, had gifted themselves some portions while selling others.

Matters came to a head recently when the DC’s office demolished parts of a building one of the LC members had built on a plot which lies within this demarcated area. The demolition had been followed by an uproar from the LC members who said the government was demolishing houses of “poor people”.

The DC, however, said his office had earlier found that the LC members had gifted themselves four plots and sold three other plots nearby and that the administration had served the owner an eviction notice before the demolition.