The unsystematic distribution of compensation for land lost to the gas pipeline construction has caused social problems and disunity in the villages in Kyaukpru Township in Arakan State, said U Kyaw Lwin, and MP of the Regional Parliament from the area.
“The problems are occurring in the villages that are crossed by the pipeline in our township, mainly in the villages of Kapaingchaung, Kyaukkhamaung, and Ratana. We have received a lot of complaing letters from the villagers of those villages. Their complaints are al about improper compensation for their land that was lost to the pipeline,” said U Kyaw Lwin.
He said the villagers have not received fair compensation for their lost land, and there are problems where the real landowners have not received their compensation because someone else has fraudulently taken it under the cover of their names.
“I have analyzed that these problems are coming up among the villagers mainly because of the fraudulent management of the responsible authorities over their lands and compensation. There are now so many cases resulting from those fraudulences in the legal courts in our area as well,” he added.
The township administration office and the land department are said to be currently distributing the compensation for the gas pipeline in Kyaukpru Township.
U Kyaw Lwin also said, “The problem is very serious especially in Kapaingchaung Village at present because the land commonly owned by 160 villages was confiscated for the pipeline, but authorities have given compensation to only 57 villagers without giving anything to the others. Dissatisfied with the discriminative compensation, the remaining villagers have abandoned work to med the dykes that are very important for the farmland in the village and over 1,000 acres of farmland in the village is now being destroyed.”
The land department is said to have divided the dykes along the farmland in the village into upper and lower parts, and the compensation was given to 57 villagers who own land at the upper part of the dykes, while nothing was given to those at the lower dykes, although they are supposed to compensate all the villagers who own land along the dykes for the pipeline.
U Kyaw Lwin said he has submitted all the problems the villagers are facing regarding the pipeline to the Chairman of the State Parliament for a solution.
