Naveed Ul Haq
Budgam, Oct 5: Residents of Buchroo Chadoora whose land would be acquired for the Srinagar semi ring road project, staged a protest against NHAI and requested them to get the required land through new and not forcibly.
The 62-kilometre road project would connect Pulwama and Ganderbal districts via Budgam.
The road length in the Phase-l will be 34.72 kilometres and in the Phase-l| 27.2 kilometres. There will be a tolli plaza at Narbal junction. In the proposed four-lane road project from Galander to Narbal, there will be 155 culverts, two road-over bridges, two flyovers, five major junctions, 17 minor junctions and one toll plaza.
The protesters said that the land was earlier selected for the ring road project in 2017 however the owner’s were not compensated neither the land was acquired by administrator for more than 2 years.
They said that as per law within the passage of two years the government should complete all the proceedings and if they failed the entire proceedings stand lapsed.
“Now it has been four years and the official’s are still passing the award of Rs 31.5 lakh for our land which is very less than a market rate and moreover it goes against the new rules,” locals said.
“When we realized that it was a wrong decision taken by the administration, we proceeded to court and they have ordered for motion (Stay) of land,” protester said.
The residents said that if the government needs the land they should get it through new rules and vacate the (stay) motion.
“We have requested the government not to forcibly take away this land from us. If this happens then we will give our lives for it,” locals said.
However, an official sub- district magistrate Chadoora Noor Ul Hameed said that the residents were already given the benefit in section 6,7 and 17 and if the residents still have any issue they can keep that in front of ACR Budgam or DC.