HC not impressed with BRTF projections for Dikchu-Sangkalang road

‘REPORT SUBMITTED DOES NOT MENTION DETAILS OF ONGOING WORK’
GANGTOK, 04 July: In a matter related to the road conditions in North Sikkim and the apparent lackadaisical attitude of the administration and other agencies the High Court came down heavily on both the state government and the army agency.
The public and panchayats of North Sikkim have filed a petition in the High Court regarding the construction of the Dikchu-Sangkalang road. A report regarding details of the works proposed was submitted to the High Court on 03 July but the court did not seem too impressed with the report of Colonel PH Reddy, Commander, 758 BRTF as it did not contain anything substantial. The division bench of the High Court directed that land acquisition process begin immediately.
The court noted that the report mainly consisted of steps which the agency and the government intended to take in the coming year but there was nothing specific on what the government was actually doing about the work at present or what the government had done so far. “However it is found that no substantial steps have been initiated to carry out the actual execution of the works”, the court noted. The court was particularly skeptical of the proposal in the report to construct a bridge in the area over a period of 3 years when there was no date of commencement mentioned. The court was also skeptical of the mention of 9 months to seek permission from the government and other agencies as mentioned in the report.
It was observed that on the 21 km stretch black topping was done on only 1 km in one year. The Chief Justice noted that one cannot speak of access to justice when the people there had no access to livelihood. 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 not been initiated for improvement and widening of the road and construction of bridges. DC North, TW Khangsarpa who was present submitted that he was not aware of any details of the proposal or if any proposal was received by his office regarding land acquisition.
Colonel Reddy was directed to immediately put up a proposal for land acquisition; the DC North was directed to take appropriate steps on receipt of such a proposal either in accordance with the provision of the land acquisition or by negotiation as may be deemed appropriate to expedite the land acquisition. The court directed that the process should be initiated not less than one month from the date of receipt of the proposal. The court also directed that the process of collecting hydraulic data for upgradation of bridges be completed within two months and a compliance report in the form of an affidavit is to be filed with the court.