Dibrugarh, Nov 12: The Arunachal Pradesh government has suspended four senior officials, including the Deputy Commissioner and Divisional Forest Officer of East Kameng district, for their alleged involvement in a massive land acquisition scam linked to the Frontier Highway project.
According to an official press release issued by A.K. Singh, Secretary of the Department of Land Management, the officials under suspension include Deputy Commissioner Himangsu Nigam (IAS), Divisional Forest Officer Abhinav Kumar (IFS), and three Heads of Departments — DAO Miram Perme, DHO C.K. Tayum, and DLRSO Takam Kechak.
The state government has also sought the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)’s approval for the suspension of DC Nigam, as per service regulations.
The suspension follows the findings of a Fact-Finding Committee (FFC) that was constituted on August 13, 2025, after several landowners lodged serious complaints about irregularities in the compensation process for land acquired to construct the Frontier Highway Road (Lada–Sarli, Packages I–V) covering 125.55 km.
“The complaints received from landowners alleged that no proper ground survey was conducted, and that the compensation process was carried out in violation of the RFCT LARR Act, 2013,” the official release stated.
It further noted that the District Administration failed to form a multidisciplinary committee comprising officers from the Forest, Horticulture, Agriculture, and PWD departments for the joint verification process.
“The District Administration made huge disparities in compensation amounts, awarding excessive and disproportionate payments for non-existent assets and persons while excluding actual affected families,” the release added.
Several landowners also alleged that they were not notified during the survey and that their grievances were ignored in the final award.
Taking cognizance of these allegations, the government’s Fact-Finding Committee—chaired by the Commissioner (Transport) and including senior officials from the PWD (Highways), Land Management, Forest, Agriculture, Horticulture, and Fisheries departments—was tasked with submitting its report within 30 days. The panel later received an extension until November 30, 2025.
The interim report, submitted on November 4, 2025, reportedly revealed gross irregularities, including assessment of non-existent assets, inflated valuations, and fraudulent compensation approvals.
“Considering the serious irregularities found by the FFC as per the interim report, the board members responsible for the joint field survey have been placed under suspension with immediate effect,” Singh stated.
The final report of the fact-finding committee is expected later this month.
