Little relief for acquired land, Haryana man stonewalls traffic

Demanding adequate compensation for his land acquired for the Kurukshetra-Pehowa state highway, a Pehowa resident today attempted to block the road by building a wall on it.

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Balwinder Singh and his family reached the state highway with bricks and labour, and started building a wall. Commuters were asked to cross the stretch from the adjoining fields. Soon, officials reached the spot and tried to persuade Balwinder not to build the wall. However, he refused to stop the work and demanded the due compensation.

A case was registered against five identified and some unidentified persons at the Pehowa City police station on a complaint of the SDO, PWD (B&R).

The complainant said the road was blocked without giving any intimation to the district administration and it caused inconvenience to the public. Despite several requests, the man refused to clear the road.

SHO Jan Pal Singh confirmed that a case had been registered. However, no arrest had been made so far.

Advocate Mithun Attri said Balwinder and his family had 22 marla land. In 2010, Balwinder got the demarcation of his land done and came to know that a road was passing through it.

Based on the demarcation, a case was filed in the Pehowa court. In 2013, the court ordered the government to either provide compensation or return the land, but no action was taken by the government.

In 2014, an execution plea was filed and in 2018, the court gave the possession of the land to the aggrieved party.

In the meantime, the government had released “inadequate compensation” as well. The government then moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In 2023, the government’s case was dismissed and at that time the aggrieved party had blocked the road in a similar fashion.

However, the then SDM, Pehowa, assured the owner that rightful compensation would be given. However, the government again filed a fresh application in the sessions court and recently, it, too, was dismissed.

“The aggrieved party should get its rightful compensation or else we will approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the government,” the advocate said.

Balwinder said, “The government should provide compensation as per the market rates or return our land and shift the road.”

Earlier, police officials swung into action to restore traffic and detained four persons for blocking the highway.

Pehowa DSP Nirmal Kumar, who reached the spot, said, “We received information that a person was building a wall in the middle of the highway following which we reached the spot. Officials of the PWD (B&R) also spoke to the person. The road has been cleared.”

Executive Engineer, PWD (B&R), Rishi Sachdeva said, “It is an old matter in which the person had approached the court and a compensation of Rs 5.50 lakh was provided. However, he was dissatisfied with the amount and approached the court again, which ordered the department to provide more compensation. The matter was pending and was recently dismissed by the court.”

“I had assured Balwinder that as per the court’s directions and norms, rightful compensation would be given, but today he decided to block the state highway, which was wrong. Compensation has already been given, and we have again assured him that the pending amount would be provided to him,” Sachdeva said.