High Court seeks compliance report from Punjab Chief Secretary
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 13
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed Punjab Chief Secretary to submit an affidavit detailing the action taken on its directions issued in October last year, including prompt police assistance for the NHAI in acquiring encumbrance-free land, particularly after compensation had been determined.
The Division Bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Kuldeep Tiwari issued directions in response to the NHAI’s grievances following the non-compliance of the court’s directives issued on October 18, 2023.
The NHAI had sought directions through senior advocate Chetan Mittal with counsel RS Madan and Mayank Aggarwal for restoring the writ petition to the original position and to pass further directions.
The Bench was told that the main grievance of the NHAI was on account of non-availability of possession of the acquired land in Punjab. It was further highlighted that 10 national highways with a total length of 391 km costing Rs 13,190 crores could not be proceeded with.
In one of the applications, it was said that 2 km area was to be handed over to the contractor in the presence of the SDM and police officials in November last year, but the landowners and others did not permit the contractor to carry out the work and police help was also not provided. Seven members of the contractor’s technical staff and the NHAI were illegally detained and taken hostage. An FIR was also registered in that regard.
