Villagers stop work on Baddi-Chandigarh rail line

Solan, December 8

Villagers stopped the ongoing work on the Baddi-Chandigarh railway line at Sandholi village today. They resented that issues such as the release of balance payment, absence of slip roads and irrigation facilities were causing hardships to them.

Baddi Tehsildar Rajesh Rial reached the spot and assured the agitating villagers that their grievances would be amicably resolved, following which the work on the railway line resumed.

About 30 to 40 farmers gathered at Sandholi village in Baddi this afternoon and shouted slogans against Railway officials and the local administration for failing to address their grievances for the past one year.

Farmers stopped vehicles, which were supplying material for the construction of a railway platform. The villagers said that they were yet to receive the balance payment for their land acquired for the project. They added that water from tubewells was not reaching their fields after supply pipes were damaged in excavation work. They demanded laying of new supply pipes from tubewells to their fields or digging of new tubewells.

They said the road to their fields had been damaged and an alternative road should be built immediately. The Tehsildar assured the farmers that their balance dues would be paid by the month end and other issues would be taken up with the officials concerned.

“Around Rs 7 crore is yet to be paid to villagers and efforts are afoot to release the balance payments by the month end. Some landowners, who are yet to submit their complete papers, have been directed to submit these soon for the speedy completion of formalities,” said Shubash Saklani, Officer on Special Duty for Land Acquisition.