State behind hindrances in highway projects: BJP
Hitting back at the state government for blaming the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the delay in land acquisition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said chief minister Bhagwant Mann is ‘unnecessary creating issues instead of amicably paving way for the national highway projects’ in the state.
Hitting back at the state government for blaming the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the delay in land acquisition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said chief minister Bhagwant Mann is ‘unnecessary creating issues instead of amicably paving way for the national highway projects’ in the state.
State BJP’s general secretary Anil Sarin alleged the obstacles in execution of key highway projects in Punjab are ‘state sponsored’ as not even a single project has been materialised or come close to completion during over two and a half years of tenure of AAP government.
Sarin said it is the responsibility of the state government to acquire land for these (highway) projects and award due compensation to the stakeholders. “The CM and the officials are spreading lies among public...,” he said.
On August 9, Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari had written to the Punjab CM, warning that the NHAI would have no other option but to cancel eight highway projects (293 km) costing ₹14,288 crore, citing ‘poor’ law and order situation as NHAI contractors were being beaten up and receiving death threats.
Responding over threats and violence, the state government had stated that the police had registered the FIRs in both cases. CM Mann had mentioned that the Jalandhar incident was the outcome of over-excavation of land by the NHAI contractor while the Ludhiana incident was the outcome of non-payment of dues by the contractor to its sub-contractor.