SC panel recommends Rs 150 crore penalty on Meghalaya university for alleged forest encroachment

A central empowered committee of the Supreme Court on Wednesday recommended a penalty of Rs 150 crore on the University of Science and Technology in Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district for allegedly encroaching forest land, The Indian Express reported.

In a report on inter-state impacts, the committee alleged that the university was built on 25 hectares of encroached forest land. It recommended that the entire area occupied by the institution and surrounding buildings be “fully restored” to forest within a year.

The committee added that the penalty should be used to remove all “illegal structures”.

The private university, operated by the Education and Research Development foundation owned by Mahbubul Hoque, has been at the receiving end of communal jibes from Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Hoque is a Bengali-origin Muslim from Assam’s Karimganj district.

Sarma has claimed that the university was responsible for the flash floods in Guwahati on August 5, 2024.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader alleged that the campus was built by cutting trees and destroying hills in the adjacent Ri Bhoi district, which triggered floods in Guwahati. He accused the university of waging a “flood jihad”.

The hills of Meghalaya in the Ri Bhoi district slope into Guwahati. The campus is about 6 km from the outskirts of Guwahati.

The central empowered committee report submitted on Wednesday was based on a...

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