Illegal structures along Manali highway to be razed

Dipender Manta

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Mandi, January 29

The Kullu administration has decided to remove illegal structures on government land along the Chandigarh-Manali highway in the district in the first week of February.

Illegal structures between Bhunter-Ramshila, and Ramshila-Manali stretches will be removed in first phase. The drive will later be carried out in other parts. — Ashutosh Garg, Kullu DC

A large number of encroachments have been reported between the Bhunter-Ramshila and Ramshila-Manali stretches to set up businesses illegally.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has already directed the authorities concerned to remove encroachments along highways, be it national, state or others.

The court had expressed shock at the large number of unauthorised structures along highways right under the nose of the authorities. Only two presumptions could be drawn — incompetence or active collusion — both of which went against the law, it had observed. DC Ashutosh Garg said in the first week of February, a campaign would be launched to remove illegal encroachments.

“A committee would be constituted for the purpose. Permanent structures would be removed after being properly marked. In the first phase, temporary and permanent structures along the highway from Bhunter to Ramshila and Ramshila to Manali would be removed,” he said. “The campaign will later be carried out in other parts of the district. The NHAI will first ask such people to remove temporary structures. In case of no response, these will be removed within three days,” said the DC.