Haryana Home and Urban Local Bodies Minister, Anil Vij on Wednesday directed the concerned officers to immediately open alternate routes from Haryana to Delhi due to closure of Singhu border and Tikri border due to the ongoing farmers' agitation for ten months now.
Vij while presiding over a meeting of senior officers here, asked them to start the repair work of alternate routes so that the general public does not face any kind of problem while commuting to Delhi on these routes from Haryana. The government also released the list of alternate routes which will be repaired from Thursday onwards.
While giving instructions to the officers, the Home Minister said that keeping in mind the convenience of the people, the alternate routes will have to be repaired at the earliest and work in this regard will start from Thursday itself. He said that short term tenders will be issued soon.
Vij also asked the officials that the work being done by NHAI on NH-44 should be started immediately so that there is no problem in the movement of people. On this, Vij assured the concerned officers that if there is any problem in starting this work, the help of police will also be provided to NHAI.
Similarly, he said that HSIIDC roads are the main alternative routes from Sonepat to Delhi and they should be repaired at the earliest. Also, regarding the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, he directed the officers concerned that there must be a provision of public toilets at KMP.
Earlier speaking on the issue of farmers’ unions not attending the meeting of the state-level committee on clearing road blockade due to agitation, Vij said that the Supreme Court will be apprized about the matter and Home Minister Amit Shah has already been informed about the same. Vij said that the case is slated to come up for hearing on September 24, while an early hearing has also been sought.
He said that an affidavit has also been filed regarding efforts being made and the present situation and now further course of action will be taken as per the court orders.
Notably, the farmers’ leaders did not attend the meeting convened by Haryana Government’s high-powered committee on Sunday over clearing the blockade on national highway-44 on the Kundli-Singhu border.
Following the directions of the Supreme Court, the State Government had last week constituted a state-level committee comprising Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Rajeev Arora as chairman to hold talks with farmers’ organizations.