Sikkim’s first rail link continues to be in limbo
Sikkim’s first airport opened this month, but work on the only railway line connecting the tiny Himalayan state with the rest of the country hangs in limbo, with forest dwellers turning down an offer by the West Bengal government to grant them alternative land title deeds. Foundation stones for both the airport and the rail link were laid in 2009.
The forest dwellers are demanding that the administration turn forest villages into revenue villages . The villagers, who are fighting for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006, have said they will settle for noth- ing less than revenue land titles.
The proposed broad gauge line between Sevoke in West Bengal and Rangpo in Sikkim will cover a distance of 44.98-km, of which 41.54 km falls in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal administered by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), while only 3.44 km will run through Sikkim.
The railway project is important because it will bring Sikkim, which borders China, Nepal and Bhutan, onto the railway map of India. Incidentally, China is rapidly expanding its railway connectivity to the border. The ₹1,339.48 crore project was supposed to be completed by 2015. The estimated cost has now almost quadrupled to ₹4,100 crore because of the time overrun.
In past two months, the Mamata Banerjee administration of West Bengal and semi-autonomous GTA issued land title deeds to more than 300 families.
“Land title deeds contain no details of the land in which the forest villagers are living. These also don’t have name of the mouza, plot, JL and khatian numbers and the concerned piece land continues to remain under the forest department,” said Lila Kumar Gurung, general secretary of the Himalayan Forest Villagers Organisation (HFVO) and the key man behind the agitation.
Revenue land pattas (titles) for which the villagers are agitating will have all the details of the land such as name of mouza, plot, JL and khatian numbers and the piece of land remains under the land and land reform department, said Gurung. “This can be done only after the existing forest villages are converted into revenue villages as per the Forest Rights Act 2006,” said Gurung.
Once the villages are converted into revenue villages, the land can be sold by the owner, said leaders of the agitation.
“The process is a long one and the process of getting NOCs from forest villagers has started,” said district magistrate of Darjeeling, Joyoshi Dasgupta, on Saturday.
She refused to comment when asked whether the administration is considering the demand of converting the villages into revenue villages.
Gurung alleged that the administration wants to obtain NOCs from gram sabhas to push the project. “However, gram sabhas of 165 forest villages have so far not issued any NOC,” said Gurung. “Only after NOC from the gram sabhas is obtained would the project get a green signal from the Union ministry of environment and forests and Union ministry of tribal affairs,” said an official of IRCON, the agency that will build the track.
Tshering Thendup Bhutia, general manager of IRCON Sevok-Rangpo Railway project, said, “Work has not progressed in Bengal side as formalities of getting mandatory NOCs from the forest gram sabhas have not been completed.”
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