People and local leaders have demanded review of the decision of widening national highway (NH)-87 into four lanes between Rampur and Kathgodam, accusing the NHAI officials of arbitrarily cutting off their lands in the name of widening of this highway.
“There is no uniformity in widening of this national highway. If at a point this road is 22 metres wide, the width of the road at another stretch is 40 metres or at some other point it is 60 metre,” alleged the people while staging a day long protest here on Thursday, under the banner of the SECC), opposing the cutting of the lands both side of this NH in their areas between lalkuwan and Halduchaur.
“We demand resurvey of the widening of the NH between Rampur and Kathgodam,” said Badri Prasad Gupta, president of the SECC. “We are also of the view that after conducting resurvey of the widening of this NH, the land should be acquired in same size from both side of the road,” Gupta further said.
“land should not be acquired in excessive manner as it is very precious to us. The fact is that it takes a lot of hard work to prepare this land for agriculture purpose. But the National Highway officials concerned are arbitrarily cutting the land in the name of the widening of the NH,” the protesters alleged.
Villagers of many parts of this region, including Halduchaur, Motahaldu, Goraparao, to name a few, also raised similar concerns over excessive cutting of lands in the name of widening of the NH in their respective areas in September last when widening works were not even started.
Presently, the National Highway-87 between Rampur and Kathgodam is being converting into a four-lane road.