High Court takes up PIL on North Sikkim Roads, directs BRO to submit details on plans, status and problems

GANGTOK, 06 June: The division bench of Sikkim High Court, on 01 June, directed the Chief Engineer of Project Swastik to submit a detailed affidavit explaining the organisation’s plans for improvement and maintenance of roads in Sikkim, especially those in North Sikkim connecting Dikchu to Mangan.
The High Court of Sikkim has taken up the case suo moto [now a Public Interest Litigation by public and panchayats of North Sikkim versus Chief Engineer, Project Swastik, and others] following a letter written by a handicapped girl complaining of the bad road conditions in North Sikkim and similar representations made by the public and Panchayats of North Sikkim to the Chief Justice Permod Kohli during his visit to the district [on 15 May 2012] accompanied by Supreme Court Judge Justice Altamas Kabir Justice SP Wangdi of the High Court of Sikkim.
During his halt at the Block Administrative Centre Passingdang in Upper Dzongu, the public and Panchayats had made a representation seeking the High Court’s intervention to address the poor condition of roads maintained by both, the state government and Project Swastik.
The Sikkim High Court has directed Project Swastik to file detailed reports on status of roads maintained in Sikkim by BRO [under which Project Swastik falls] adding that most of the roads are of national strategic importance and are necessary for development of the border areas as well.
The Court has also directed that norms laid down for improvement and repairs of the road be placed on record to enable the Court to “crease out” the difficulties of the Project Swastik and other respondents and to issue “effective directions”.
The back-cuttings, upgradation and maintenance of North Sikkim highways were initiated in the year 2005 and have still not even halfway through with the concerned agencies claiming various difficulties including forest clearance and financial constraints and labour shortages.
The Commander of 758 Border Road Task Force (BRTF) filed details of the works taken up by Project Swastik and BRTF and their present status. Col. PH Reddy, who was present on the Court had explained the difficulties faced by the executing agencies in undertaking repairs, upgradation and maintenances of border roads.
The High Court, while appreciating the difficulties, also opined that the carpeting of roads in phases definitely creates a lot of problems. “By the time the entire road is carpeted, the initial carpeting is broken and damaged due to vagaries of weather and its users,” the bench observed.