People should cooperate to solve Digha issue: CM

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday urged the house and land owners in the contentious Digha-Rajiv Nagar area to cooperate with the government in resolving the nagging problem that has plagued the people concerned for the last 35 years.
He urged people to finally make up their mind to abide by the rules of the Digha Rajiv Nagar Land Acquisition Act (2010), which were being framed for a permanent solution to the issue.
Intervening during the government reply to the call attention motion of JD(U) MLA from Digha, Poonam Yadav, the CM said there were two categories of people in the area: those who have made houses on the land they purchased from farmers after the land had been acquired by the Bihar State Housing Board, and those who have neither made houses nor have been paid compensation after the acquisition of their land by the board.
"Those whose construction on the land is unlawful will have to pay something extra, to be decided after consultations, for the regularisation of the ownership of their land. The money so pooled in would be paid as compensation to the other category of people," the CM said, adding that things would get going after the rules of the Act are issued.
"Both the parties should have a give and take approach for a permanent solution to the problem," he said. Otherwise, the problem would remain hanging as a Damocle’s sword on the mind of people, the CM said.
Digha MLA Poonam Yadav stated in the call attention motion that owners of Digha land, which had been acquired by the housing board in 1976, had not yet been paid compensation. She sought to know from the government if it would pay compensation to them.
Earlier, urban development minister Prem Kumar said that 1,024.51 acres of land had been acquired by the housing board in 1976. However, there occurred unlawful purchase, ownership and constructions on 600 acres of land through dubious deals involving cooperative societies and farmers, who paid money to the housing board. The owners of 424.51acres of land were not paid adequate compensation.
The CM asked Yadav to create favourable atmosphere in the area that had elected her to the state assembly.