Locals protest as farms dug up for cables
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The government's telecom project for which fibre optical cables are being laid underground to connect Yangon with the capital Nay Pyi Taw has been hit by protests from locals whose farms were dug up, one of the protesters said.
The farms ended up getting dug up twice as cables were being buried along the roads in Thapyay San village in Magway township, he said.
The affected farmers are demanding compensation for their damaged crops and land, but the contractor is only willing to pay for the damaged crops.
The farms were dug up for a second time on March 10, even though negotiations had not been completed, arousing anger among the locals.
The farmers said that officials did not notify them before digging up their land.
This project is a joint venture between Myanmar Post and Telecommunication (MPT) and Singapore’s International Telecommunication Holding (ITHL), allowing for 30 million GSM phone lines to be set up in major cities, including Yangon, Pyay, Magway and Nay Pyi Taw.
Unsuitable for crops
“In my experience I have learned that plants cannot grow on the land if the cables are buried this way. Though we have been telling them about our losses, neither the company nor the MPT has responded,” farmer Kyaw Aung said.
He added that he tried to contact the project manager, but failed to negotiate due to the language barrier as the manager is Chinese.
“They dug our land up twice without telling us. Now that our farms have been damaged, it is not clear if the company or the MPT will compensate us,” he said.
The project is being undertaken by Myanmar Fibre Optic Cable Network (MFOCN), an affiliate of ITHL, and it is burying the cables along the roads in keeping with the Communication and Information Technology Ministry’s instructions.
“We were told to bury cables 75 feet [about 22 metres] from the road, but when we noticed we were digging another 7 feet further and had dug up the farms, we stopped immediately. The damaged farms will be compensated as per the commission’s decision,” an executive from MFOCN said.
Grooves about a metre and half deep have been dug in the farms, and the locals have already reported it to the authorities.
