Punjab’s development at stake with neglect to acquire land for Delhi-Katra Expressway: Sukhbir Badal

Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday expressed shock that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had compromised Punjab’s development and endangered its future generations by willfully neglecting to acquire land for the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway.

He said the state refused to ensure the safety of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officers and staff due to which three NHAI projects with a total length of 104 km costing Rs 3,263 crore had been terminated.

Badal’s reaction comes in the wake of Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari’s letter to Chief Minister Mann, warning that the NHAI is poised to cancel eight major highway projects, valued at Rs 14,288 crore if the prevailing law and order situation in the state does not improve.

In a statement here, the SAD President expressed shock and alarm at the manner in which the Chief Minister had allowed governance and law and order situation to decay to such an extent that the Union Minister Gadkari was compelled to ask him to intervene to retrieve the project.

Badal said it was shocking that the Aam Aadmi Party’s guarantee to the Centre at a meeting with Gadkari regarding the NHAI projects did not have any sanctity. “Mr Gakdari has in a letter to the Chief Minister pointed out that despite assurances by the state’s Public Works Minister in a meeting on July 15, the Punjab government had failed to resolve pending issues related to land acquisition as well as law and order,” he added.

He said the Union Minister has also rapped the government for failing to secure the safety of NHAI officials while pointing out how an engineer of a concessionary had been brutally assaulted in Jalandhar recently.

Asking the Chief Minister to take all steps needed to retrieve the expressway project, Badal said compensation should be awarded to farmers as per their demand and past history.

He said problems in land acquisition had occurred because the Chief Minister had refused to meet agitating farmers demanding a fair price for their land besides inordinate delay in the declaration of compensation and disbursement of awards to farmers.

Asking the Chief Minister to stop adopting an anti-farmer stance, the SAD President said he should learn from former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal who had given a compensation of Rs 1.93 crore per acre to farmers for land acquired for the southern bypass.

He said now after a span of more than seven years, the AAP government was offering farmers a base rate of only Rs 30 lakh per acre for acquiring land for the northern bypass.

“The situation is the same in other parts of the state with the AAP government offering peanuts to farmers which have endangered highway projects which are inextricably linked with the development of the state,” Badal said.

He also reminded the Chief Minister that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government had made highway development a number one priority and had successfully developed projects worth Rs 30,000 crore.