Negotiations over compensation for land taken from rubber plantation owners by Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprises or MOGE for a gas pipeline passing through Wel-Khru Village-Tract and Chan-Ta-Yar Land, Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State have stalled, reports the Independent Mon News Agency November 18.
U Htay Lwin, the monitoring engineer from the Mawlamyine Gas Pipeline and Preservation Department of MOGE, and over 20 rubber plantation owners who were affected by the gas pipeline held negotiations at the at Kyar-Kan ward administration office in Thanbyuzayat Township on November 12.
Daw Phwar Aye, another rubber grower, said local rubber plantation owners were dissatisfied with the compensation of K70,000 per rubber tree offered by MOGE. They want to be paid the market rate of K200,000 per tree.
She said that if the plantation owners do not get the proper compensation they will not allow MOGE to lay the gas pipeline through their rubber plantations.
U Htay Lwin from MOGE said that he will report back to his managers and they will then do their best to come up with a proposal that he hopes will be agreeable to the rubber growers.
Naing Thein Aung MP (Pyithu Hluttaw, Mon Regional Democracy Party, Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State) also attended the negotiations. He said that on top of paying a compensation price for each tree destroyed MOGE would also have to pay the rubber growers compensation for the money they spent raising the trees and future income they would have made from the trees.
The gas pipeline already runs from Kan-Pauk in Yebyu Township, Tanintharyi Region to Myaing-Ka-Lay in Kayin State. MOGE are replacing several sections of the pipeline, including the section running through Wel-Khru Village-Tract and Chan-Ta-Yar Land.