Ludhiana: The Centre has threatened to cancel more national highway projects in Punjab in case the situation, which it termed as “worsening”, does not improve. Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has written a demi-official letter to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, raising serious safety concerns for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officers, contractors and their staff besides pending land acquisition matters.
Reacting to Gadkari’s missive, the CM said: “We are on the job and will review the projects intensively to ascertain the real obstacles. The government will convince the farmers regarding the importance of these projects to seek their cooperation. For other people, the law of land will be enforced.”
In a strongly worded two-page letter, Gadkari took up with Mann the issue of recent assault and life threats to NHAI men on work in the state.
“The NHAI is developing Greenfield and Brownfield national highway corridors, including Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway in Punjab. In this regard, I want to highlight serious safety concerns for NHAI officers, contractors and their staff as well as issues related to pending land acquisition matters,” the Union Minister wrote.
He said he had been informed about two untoward incidents, which occurred recently on the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway projects, wherein an engineer of the contractor was brutally assaulted in Jalandhar, project camp of the contractor was attacked and the engineers were threatened with dire consequences in Ludhiana.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the inaction, Gadkari said: “Although FIR has been registered in the Jalandhar case, strong action is required to be taken against the perpetrators. In Ludhiana, where the engineers and the men on work were threatened to be burnt alive along with the project camp, no FIR has been filed and the miscreants have not been arrested despite written request by NHAI officers.”
