Aizawl, Sep 14 : As the Assam Rifles is nearing its relocation from its century-old battalion headquarters in the heart of the city, the Mizo Nationa Front (MNF) has claimed itself as the champion of the cause of shifting of the paramilitary force to a hill called Zokhawsang, about 15 kilometres east of Aizawl.
Addressing a press conference here today, Mizo National Front (MNF) legislature party leader Dr R Lalthangliana accused the Congress Government of trying to derail the process of the Assam Rifles relocation during its ten-year rule from 1989 to 1998.
When the MNF government led by Pu Laldenga was formed in 1987, after the state's first assembly elections, it had considered the issue as one of its top priorities.
An agreement to this effect was signed between then the Mizoram chief secretary Dengchhuana and Col Gursharan Singh of the Assam Rifles, on May 31, 1988, the former minister told at the press conference.
An amount of Rs 92,59,156 was also paid to private landowners in Zokhawsang as compensation. The entire exercise was expected to be completed within three years, Lalthangliana said. However, the MNF government was toppled on September 7, 1988, pushing Mizoram into President's Rule.
Then, the process of Assam Rifles relocation was totally abandoned by the Congress Government led by Lal Thanhawla, formed in January 1989 continued to remain in power till December 1998.
Lalthangliana recalled that the Congress Government on May 28, 1992, issued a press release stating that the Assam Rifles would be shifted from its present location to Khatla.
Announcing a Cabinet decision, then chief minister Lal Thanhawla also held a press conference on this day where he made it clear that the Assam Rifles would be shifted to Khatla and civil secretariat would be constructed on the vacated place.
The Congress Government's plan was to shift the Assam Rifles from one place to another in the same city, he said. Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla had also gone on record saying, during a press conference in 1995 that nowhere in India had security forces been removed from a town or a city.
According to the MNF leader, it was not until MNF party came back in power in 1998 that the process of Assam Rifles shifting was resumed with renewed efforts.
Thanks to the constant pressure of the MNF Government, Chief Minister Zoramthanga in particular, a clearance on the much-awaited relocation of Assam Rifles was received, Lalthangliana said.
To make sure that the vacated land of the Assam Rifles was used for public purpose only, the MNF Government passed the Mizoram (Restriction on use of Transferred Land) Act, 2002, in the state assembly.
Finally, a 99-year-land lease certificate for 524 hectares of land in Zokhawsanga was handed over to the director general of the Assam Rifles, Shillong, in 2006, Lalthangliana recollected. On March 12, 2008, the ministry of home affairs sanctioned Rs 145,17,30,000 for construction of barracks and offices at Zokhawsang, he stated.
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