DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday blamed the NHAI and its contractors for the delayed land acquisition for highway projects, days after Union minister Nitin Gadkari warned of terminating road projects in the state citing law and order situation.

The chief minister wrote a letter to the Union road transport and highways minister, saying the state government is committed to speedy execution of projects and barring a few exceptions, most of the road projects in Punjab are on track.

On August 9, Gadkari wrote a letter to the chief minister and said that the NHAI will have no other option but to cancel/terminate eight highway projects in Punjab with total length of 293 km costing Rs 14,288 crore, if the law and order situation does not improve.

The minister pointed out another incident in Ludhiana district, where the project camp of the contractor of Delhi-Katra Expressway was attacked by miscreants and also engineers were threatened of burning the project camp and their staff alive.

Gadkari said that he had been informed about two incidents which occurred recently on the Delhi-Katra Expressway projects. "In one incident in Jalandhar district, the engineer of the contractor was brutally assaulted. Although FIR has been registered in this regard, strong action is required to be taken against the perpetrators," Gadkari wrote.

In his response, Mann said the Punjab police acted promptly in the said incidents but both the cases stemmed from causes attributable to the contractor.

Mann further said his government is committed to speedy execution of projects and also said barring a few exceptions, most of the road projects are on track.

Gadkari had also said that due to the pending issues related to land acquisition and prevailing law and order condition, a number of contractors have requested to foreclose contracts and have raised claims against NHAI.

In his reply, Mann stated that his government fully understands the importance of NHAI projects and, "we are committed to speedy execution of these projects." "The state government has been proactively supporting the NHAI in land acquisition and other related matters. This is the reason that barring a few exceptions, most of the NHAI projects in the state are on track," he wrote.

On the land acquisition issues, Mann said farmers are deeply attached to their land, as it is their prized possession, being their main source of livelihood.

"Further, land prices in Punjab are on the higher side. Our farmers are reluctant to part with their lands, if they feel that the compensation is not adequate," he pointed out.

"There are a number of cases in which the farmers were satisfied with the awards given by the arbitrators and were willing to hand over the possession of their lands to NHAI at the awarded rates. However, NHAI chose to challenge the arbitrator's award or took inordinately long time in accepting the award," said Mann, adding, "this delayed the acquisition process." Similarly, there are a number of cases in which possession of land was given to NHAI, but the contractors took a long time in mobilizing their machinery and starting the work, Mann wrote.

"In between, the farmers started cultivating the land again. Once the state authorities have given the possession of land to NHAI, it is the duty of NHAI or its contractors to maintain the possession," he wrote.

However, the chief minister said the state chief secretary is already holding regular review meetings with the deputy commissioners and NHAI officials to resolve bottlenecks.

"In addition, I personally plan to engage with the farmers on this issue," he said.

Referring to the Ludhiana and Jalandhar incidents, Mann said police promptly registered the FIRs under relevant provisions of law. Further, in both these cases, arrests have been made, he said.

"However, on investigation it has been found that one incident was the outcome of over excavation of land by NHAI concessionaire/contractor.

"The second incident was the outcome of non-payment of financial dues by the concessionaire/contractor to its sub- contractor," Mann pointed out.

Thus, both the cases stemmed from causes attributable to concessionaire/contractor, said Mann.

Stating that a detailed report of special DGP is enclosed herewith, Mann said irrespective of all this, Punjab Police, being one of the finest forces, is committed to take care of safety concerns of NHAI.

Police have been directed to deploy patrolling teams in the area to maintain law and order, he wrote.

NHAI is developing greenfield and brownfield national highway corridors including Delhi-Katra Expressway in Punjab.
(editor@dailyworld.in)