Arunachal Suspends Officials After Probe Reveals Fraud in Frontier Highway Land Compensation
Massive highway fraud robs real owners, pays ghosts.
The Arunachal Pradesh government on Wednesday suspended four senior officials over a multi-crore land acquisition scam in the Frontier Highway project spanning 125.55 km from Lada to Sarli in East Kameng district. The suspended officers—Divisional Forest Officer Abhinav Kumar, District Agriculture Officer Miram Perme, District Horticulture Officer C. K. Tayum, and District Land Revenue & Settlement Officer Takam Kechak—allegedly manipulated compensation awards under the RFCTLARR Act, 2013, bypassing mandatory ground surveys.
A flood of complaints exposed that no joint verification team—including forest, horticulture, agriculture, and PWD experts—ever assessed the land. Instead, payments were disbursed for non-existent assets and fictitious claimants, while legitimate landowners and affected families were completely excluded from the final award list, denied notices, and left without redressal.
The Fact-Finding Committee’s interim report, submitted on November 4, confirmed “gross anomalies and fraudulent assessment practices,” revealing inflated and disproportionate payouts to ghost beneficiaries. The committee, formed after public outcry, conducted site visits and invited claims, uncovering systematic exclusion of genuine stakeholders during the entire acquisition process.
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Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Nigam, who chaired the controversial Ground Verification Board, now faces suspension pending Ministry of Home Affairs approval. The Department of Land Management, in an order by Secretary AK Singh, described the irregularities as “serious in nature,” triggering immediate administrative action to halt further misuse of public funds.
With the 30-day investigation ongoing, the scam has raised alarm over governance in strategic border infrastructure projects. Authorities have vowed strict action against all involved, as affected families demand justice and full recovery of misappropriated compensation.
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