Following the complaints received from locals and farmers to be affected by work on the highway between lalkuan and Haldwani, the Nainital district magistrate Deependra Chaudhary along with the lalkuan MlA Navin Dumka visited the site and held a meeting with the persons at Gorapadav to be affected by the work and the officials concerned here on Sunday.
During the meeting, the district magistrate directed officials of the National Highways Authority of India that the acquisition of the land required for the highway work should be facilitated only under the 2012-13 gazette of the government of India.
This should be done so that as little as possible of the land of the people is affected by the work. At the same time, the affected people should also be provided adequate compensation at the time of the acquisition of land for the said work. The district magistrate further directed the officials concerned to facilitate construction of service roads in front of the schools situated along the stretch of the highway in question so that the school children do not face any inconvenience while going to their schools. It is pertinent to mention here that a 93 kilometre long stretch of the highway from Rampur to Kathgodam is to be developed into a four-lane road. According to sources, a total of about 34 hectare land belonging to more than 1,000 farmers in the Nainital district is expected to be affected by this work on the highway.