KL Report
SRINAGAR
The inhabitants of South Kashmir’s Pulwama District alleged that due to political rivalry, the much needed Ring road project proposed in the PDP- Congress government was stopped by the present NC led regime citing financial constraints a reason.
According to the locals the work on this 11.90 kilometer road from Bunoora to Gangoo villages in the district was started in the financial year of 2005-2006, during PDP-Congress regime, to streamline the traffic coming from and to district Shopian including traffic of Mughal road to Srinagar.“28.27 crore project was divided into two phases. Its first phase from Gangoo to BSNL exchange Pulwama was completed few years ago, but after that the work was all of a sudden stopped, “Residents of the District told KNS.
“The Ring road around Pulwama town was a good initiative, which could have at a large extent stopped the frequent traffic jams witnessed in the town, but the government left this big “dream project” mid way for unknown reasons,” they added.
When contacted Executive Engineer R&B Pulwama Muhmmad Ayoub Wani told KNS that the department has completed the first phase of 2.7 kilometers with an estimated cost of Rs. 6 crore. But the work of the second phase was not started as it needed more than 47 Kanals of land that farmers refused to give without compensation. However, the local’s contest the claims saying government didn’t want to complete this project. “We are giving them land but they have to give compensation. The officials say that they can’t give compensation to the land. What kind of justice this is,” locals said.
A senior official in the district revenue department said the farmers were willing to give land for road at a reasonable compensation, but lack of financial support from the Government was the biggest hindrance.
“We need over Rs 10 crore to compensate the land owners coming under II-phase of the project. Government has not released funds. What can we do?” said a top official.
Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Manzoor Ahmad Lone told KNS that district administration had held several meetings in this regard to sort out the issue, moreover the administration has framed a detailed project report and forwarded it to Planning Department of the State.
