Cong: Govt ignoring BJP’s vision document

Our Correspondent

Nurpur, November 11

Local former MLA and state Congress general secretary Ajay Mahajan has alleged that the Jai Ram Thakur government has been ignoring the vision document of the BJP released before the last Assembly election. In a statement he said the BJP had promised to grant factor two compensation to the four-lane affected people in the wake of its construction in the state, but now, the state government was talking about factor one compensation to the affected residents. He said the government was backing out on the promise of its party’s vision document. He alleged that the government had adopted lackadaisical approach in redressing the grievances of the four-lane affected people in Kangra and Mandi districts.

The Congress leader said, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadgari at a press conference in Chandigarh had stated that the Government of India had no hesitation if the state governments demanded factor two compensation in acquiring land for the construction of four-lane project. “The Bihar and Punjab governments have recommended factor two compensation for the four- lane affected people, whereas on the same pattern, the BJP-ruled states have been granting the same compensation to the four-lane affected people,” he asserted. He lamented that the Jai Ram Thakur government seemed reluctant in addressing the problem of those affected in the state. He said the state government should fulfil the promise made in the vision document.

Mahajan said thousands of inhabitants of 20 towns in the Nurpur zone from Kandwal to Bhalli, who had been running their business establishments alongside the Pathankot-Mandi National Highway-154 for the past many decades, would be shut after the construction of four-lane project. He asked the state government to disclose the plan formulated for their rehabilitation.