Farmers threaten to halt work on project

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Palwal, January 20

Hundreds of residents of the town and neighbouring villages thronged the district headquarters today to stage a protest over the alleged failure of the authorities to provide direct connectivity of the Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal expressway with various link roads in the district.

They threatened to stop expressway construction if the demand was not met soon. Led by Karan Singh Dalal, Congress MLA from Palwal, the protesters staged a march and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner in this regard.

They served an ultimatum of one month on the issue and threatened to halt the project. Dalal claimed that faulty design and planning in construction of the expressway in the district might result in various problems for local residents in the near future.

Despite reminders and requests, the authorities concerned had failed to start work on providing direct connectivity to link roads of the Palwal-Aligarh, Palwal-Mohna and Palwal-Rasoolpur areas despite the fact that land in several villages had been acquired in the process.

He said thousands of vehicles used link roads and city roads. He said failure to provide direct access to the expressway would result in acute problems to commuters and traffic chaos in the town. He said vehicles would have to use local roads to reach their destinations.

He said only direct access from link roads to the expressway would provide a useful and smart solution to the growing problem of traffic jams and accidents. He claimed that the demand for release of royalty to farmers whose land had been acquired was being ignored.

He said farmers who had given their land had not been given the benefit so far. He said this benefit had been provided for land acquisition for the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway. The protesters demanded six-laning of the elevated overbridge through the town and a new bypass for commuters using National Highway 2.

Keshav Munjal, former municipal councillor, alleged that development work in the town had been paralysed and the district was being discriminated against during the past couple of years, causing resentment among residents. Jaleb Khan, former MLA from Hathin, took part in the protest.