Rana Gurjeet raises concern over stop on National highway projects in Punjab
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ August 11,2024
Raising serious concerns over a communication from union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari issuing a warning to Punjab government to cancel/terminate eight highway projects, MLA Kapurthala Rana Gurjeet Singh today said that it is a serious matter and the Punjab government should deal it with utmost urgency and diligence.
He appealed to Gadkari and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann to treat the matter with compassion and bring it to a conclusive end to the benefit of farmers and the state of Punjab.
“It is not a law and order problem, the real issue is that the farmers were not paid adequate compensation for the agricultural land acquired for the highway projects and the inadequacy has led to unrest”, said Rana Gurjeet Singh.
He asked the state government to resolve the matter at the earliest by resolving the issues of low compensation to the farmers. Eight national highways of total length of 293 kilometers with a total cost of Rs 14288 crore are under construction in the state.
“As per an act of the parliament enacted in 2013 the farmers would get four times the cost of market value to rehabilitate the land owners who have been divested of their source of livelihood, but in case of farmers in Punjab the market price inappropriately valued”, said the Kapurthala MLA.
He asked the state government to implement the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013 in true spirit for proper acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation of the farmers.
Rana Gurjeet raises concern over stop on National highway projects in Punjab. The state government should fasten the process of arbitration as thousands of cases are still pending. “There is a time frame mandated to settle the arbitration cases within six months, but the cases have been pending for the past two years”, pointed out Gurjeet Singh.
