Farmers protest over height of underpass

Ashok Kaura

Phagwara, MAY 3

Several members of Kisan Sangharsh Committee, Sultanpur Lodhi, along with farmers led by Prabhdial Singh, block president of the committee, today staged a protest at the under-construction Amritsar-Bathinda-Jamnagar Expressway in Masit village of Kapurthala district.

They demanded that the height of underpasses being constructed at the expressway be 5.5 metres instead of 4.5 metres, as promised by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The protesters asked for an NHAI official to come at the spot and provide them assurance in this connection.

The efforts of Tehsildar Sultanpur Lodhi Gurleen Kaur to pacify the protesters did not prove to be fruitful.

The protest was lifted only after Varun Ansari, project director, NHAI, reached the protest site and assured the protesters that their demands were legitimate and would be fulfilled.