Get serious BRO!

HIGH COURT NOT CONVINCED BY ‘UNREALISTIC’ PROJECTIONS ON NORTH ROADS

GANGTOK, 02 Dec: The State government has sought more time to file an affidavit in the High Court regarding various aspects of road construction in North Sikkim, including timeframe for clearances. This is in regard to the PIL in the court by the Public and Panchayat of North Sikkim when the matter came up on 20 November.
Earlier, when the matter had come up for hearing in October, the division bench noted that it was not impressed by the compliance report filed by the army road agency. The Court noted that timeframe indicated in the report for obtaining approval/ permissions from various authorities including forest clearance and also the time frame for construction of road/ bridges between Dikchu and Sangkalang “…is unrealistic”.
In fact it had been submitted that Forest clearance would require 210 days while the time requirement mentioned for construction of a small stretch of road and bridges was 4 to 5 years. There were no details as to how this much time is required for the works, the court noted.
The court had then directed that a fresh affidavit be filed as the present one was unsatisfactory. Furthermore, it noted from the compliance report that some local contractors were not responding to the NIT issued by BRO. As such it then gave BRO the liberty to “…engage contractors from outside the state notwithstanding any circular or direction of the state government in this regard”.
The division bench noted that this direction was being issued in the interest of the public of North Sikkim “…who are suffering because of the non-availability of local labourers / contractors.”
At the same time the court observed that security aspect of the area must be taken care of while engaging outside agencies.
The court had also directed that local inhabitants were not to prevent the BRO from widening the Dikchu-Sangkalang road up to 54 feet width. This was issued as it had been submitted that the BRO was attempting to widen the road by taking private land without paying compensation. On this aspect, the court noted that the matter of compensation would be taken up at the appropriate time. The BRO was also directed to increase its manpower for maintenance of the 26 km stretch of Dikchu-Sangkalang road.
The road is a primary link for the people of the area and they have been suffering hardships due to the incomplete and pending road construction. Even land acquisition process had been initiated under court directions for improvement and widening of the road and construction of bridges.
Earlier the court had taken strong exception to the apparent lackadaisical attitude of the administration and other agencies towards their duties and had come down heavily on both the state and army agencies. It had also earlier observed that of the stretch of 21 km of the Dikchu-Sangkalang road only 1 km stretch of black topping was done in one year.
Appearing for the state respondents was the Additional AG while for the central government it was Advocate Karma Thinlay. Also appearing as Amicus was Advocate DR Thapa.