Anurag takes NHAI officials to task for ‘irresponsible’ working

“Either you are not capable of doing the work or you are protecting contactors for their misdeeds,” said Hamirpur MP and former Union Minister Anurag Thakur yesterday while talking to officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, who are responsible for the construction of the National Highway-3 that passes from Hamirpur to Mandi in the Dharampur Assembly constituency.

Anurag was on a visit to the flood-hit areas of Dharampur when people apprised him about the irresponsible behaviour and work of the highway construction company. The officials concerned tried to convince him but could not explain why the cutting of the hills was done in the violation of technical and scientific norms.

Anurag told the NHAI officials at the site that the hills that were cut vertical had not only damaged one step but had slid to the last point and damaged step two and three as well. A video of the incident that has gone viral on social media showed that an official even tried to present the former Project Director in bad light by saying that one of the breast walls constructed by him was damaged last year. Anurag asked the official when a retention wall could not be constructed even after one year, how the NHAI or the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways would complete the construction of the highway in the given time.

It has been learnt that of the 22-km stretch of the highway in Dharampur, the construction company has cut hills for 15 km of road and constructed only 7 km. The villagers of the affected area complained to Anurag that neither the workers or officials of the construction company nor of the NHAI and the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways listen to their grievances.

Anurag told the officials to compensate the aggrieved people and construct protection walls at the earliest. He said that there was no reason for these people to live under the threat of a disaster. He added that due to the execution of the work in an irresponsible manner, people had lost the access path to their houses, which were now developing cracks. He directed the officials to address the grievances of the villagers at the earliest. He assured people that he would also take up the matter with Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways.

Himachal Tribune