Chandigarh: Rail under bridge at Raipur Kalan back on track
The UT administration has issued a formal notification for the acquisition of 0.74 acre of land in Raipur Kalan, following the Punjab government's approval to acquire land on its side.
The project, originally proposed in 2017, is aimed at providing relief to residents of Harmilap Nagar, Baltana and nearby areas, who face daily traffic snarls and long waits at the frequently closed railway crossing. However, it remained stuck for nearly a decade due to delays in the land acquisition process.
Officials confirmed that the UT administration had issued the notification under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. A Social Impact Assessment (SIA) study has already been conducted, which concluded that while no displacement is anticipated, two families from Raipur Kalan village will lose portions of their agricultural land.
In a related development, the sub-divisional magistrate (Central) has been appointed as the administrator for rehabilitation and resettlement of the project.
The daily ordeal of motorists has been a major concern in the area, as they are forced to wait in long queues at the level crossing, even after the train has passed. The RUB is expected to significantly ease this problem.
Usha Rani, municipal councillor from Harmilap Nagar, criticised the prolonged delay, stating, 'The Detailed Project Report (DPR) was prepared back in 2017. The UT administration had assured that the land acquisition will be completed by January and construction by April this year, but nothing moved on the ground. It's a long-pending demand of the residents, and now, finally, it seems the project will move ahead.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
6 hours ago
- India Today
BJP leader dares DK Shivakumar to open debate on Bengaluru tunnel road project
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya dared Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to an open debate on the controversial tunnel road project in Bengaluru, calling it an 'unscientific' and 'elitist' initiative that will worsen the city's traffic woes. Surya's challenge comes in response to the Karnataka Congress's post on X on July 16, in which the party defended the Rs 18,500 crore project and dismissed Surya's earlier criticism as 'misleading, political pandering and short-sighted.'advertisementThe back-and-forth between the Karnataka Congress and Surya began after the Bengaluru South MP posted a statement on X on July 14, calling the 18-kilometre tunnel between Hebbal and Central Silk Board as a 'vanity project' for the rich. 'When the Deputy Chief Minister himself says that even God can't fix Bengaluru traffic, he's revealing his own incompetence rather than working on solutions. We don't need divine intervention — we need competent governance,' he claimed the tunnel road would primarily serve 'the crorepatis of Sadashivanagar and the millionaires and billionaires of Koramangala fourth block', with the proposed toll of Rs 660 pricing out the common man. He argued that the Congress-led state government was undermining public transport and prioritising private vehicle infrastructure, despite studies warning of increased congestion. The Bengaluru South MP also questioned the project's economic rationale, saying it demanded a viability gap funding of Rs 7,100 crore and cost more than major national infrastructure like the Atal Tunnel, Mumbai Coastal Road, and the 655-kilometre Trivandrum–Kasargod highway. 'Why is this tunnel road so expensive? At whose cost is the Congress, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Chief Minister trying to loot the state?' he alleged the project would benefit contractors and the Congress party, not the public. 'We will fight this by exploring every possible means at our disposal. We will fight inside the courts, the Vidhana Soudha, and the Parliament. We will build public momentum so that this project, which is going to be a disaster for the city, will never see its daylight,' he also flagged irregularities in the Rs 9.5 crore Detailed Project Report (DPR), alleging it contained references to Malegaon and Nashik and was partly copied from the Metro DPR, which cost only Rs 1.6 crore. He claimed one of the consultants involved was debarred in a National Highways Authority of India project in Madhya Pradesh and linked the authors to a Rs 500 crore scam in Jammu and pointed out that the project had not been cleared by the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), which is mandatory under Section 19 of the BMLTA Act. 'Bengaluru is not just a city, it's the beating heart of modern India, and it deserves infrastructure that matches its global stature,' Surya said, calling for investment in Metro, Suburban Rail and BMTC buses Karnataka Congress, responding on July 16, accused Surya of 'misleading' the public and dismissed his criticism as 'political pandering'. It defended the tunnel as a vital, signal-free, high-capacity corridor forming part of a larger multimodal mobility vision, alongside Metro expansion (over 70 km under construction), Suburban Rail (148 km), BMTC upgrades, ring roads, and arterial road from being elitist, the party claimed the project would reduce surface congestion and indirectly help the 90 per cent of commuters who rely on public or non-motorised transport. 'You've rightly stressed the importance of public transport, but progress is not a zero-sum game. Roads and rail must co-exist,' it cited its urban transport investments under the United Progressive Alliance government and said Shivakumar was continuing that legacy with 'bold multimodal interventions'. 'We welcome public audits, technical scrutiny, and open debate. But don't stall progress by labelling every transformative project as wasteful. Citizens deserve efficient execution, not polarised discourse,' it July 17, Surya replied on X: 'Good Morning. If you truly welcome technical scrutiny and public debate on this tunnel road project, I propose an open discussion with Hon. DCM Sri @DKShivakumar who is spearheading this project. Let the time and place be of your choosing Am waiting to hear back from you.'- Ends advertisementIN THIS STORY#Bengaluru#Karnataka
Indian Express
7 hours ago
- Indian Express
Decode Politics: Why dropping of Urdu clause for J&K govt post has set off a row
By Express News Service THE Central Administrative Tribunal's (CAT) order scrapping Urdu as a compulsory language requirement for a Revenue Department post in Jammu and Kashmir has renewed debate on the issue in the Union Territory. While the BJP, which had been protesting against the notification since it came out and calling it 'illegal', welcomed the CAT decision, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said non-Urdu speakers would not be 'efficient' in the posts since most land records are in Urdu. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, who made the same argument, added that it was 'deeply unfortunate' that the judiciary appears to be 'influenced by divisive politics'. On June 9, the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSSB), one of the two government recruitment agencies, issued a notification for a written exam for 75 posts of Naib Tehsildar in the UT's Revenue Department. As always, the JKSSB specified that the second paper of the written exam for the posts will test the candidate's 'working knowledge of Urdu'. Urdu has been the official administrative language of J&K since before Partition. While Persian was the official language of J&K in the early Dogra period, Maharaja Pratap Singh made Urdu as the sole official language over a century ago. It was during Maharaja Partap Singh's time that the first land settlement of J&K was carried out by Sir Walter Lawrence, an Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer, who was also a member of the British Council of India. Lawrence, who was appointed as the first Settlement Commissioner, started the process in 1889, completing it in five years. Thus, the first official land settlement in J&K was recorded in the Urdu language. Since the Lawrence period, all the revenue records of J&K were registered in Urdu. The pre-Partition revenue records are kept at Srinagar's Muhafiz Khana, which also has the original and official pre-Partition land records for the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) region. Hence, working knowledge of Urdu has always been a prerequisite for recruitment in the J&K Revenue Department because all land records in the UT are in this language. In the wake of the abrogation of Article 370, which granted J&K special status, in August 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020, was passed by the BJP-led Central government in Parliament, which added four more languages – Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi and English – to already existing Urdu as J&K's official languages. The Bill said that these five languages will be 'used for all official purposes' in the UT. The BJP immediately called for the scrapping of the notification making Urdu mandatory for for the post of Naib Tehsildars. Senior BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the J&K Assembly, Sunil Sharma, met Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to seek his intervention to drop this eligibility criterion. Sharma's contention was that making working knowledge of one of the J&K's five official languages mandatory for Naib Telsildar aspirants 'violates constitutional principles and administrative impartiality, and creates an unfair barrier'. He also claimed this would put candidates from Jammu at a 'disadvantage'. The NC and PDP, immediately countered the BJP's stance. 'Urdu is not associated with any class, region, or religion, but is a historical and administrative language used in Jammu and Kashmir for over 130 years. During the reign of the Maharaja, all administrative work was conducted in Persian but later Urdu was adopted as a unifying language,' NC chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq pointed out. 'It is wrong to view every issue through a religious lens. The shajras (or the ancestral land records) have long been written in Urdu and it is not possible to change all those documents now. There is a need to acknowledge Urdu's historical role in administration, including judiciary and revenue,' Sadiq said. Subsequently, a petition was filed by job seekers with the CAT over the order. A Bench comprising Member (Judicial) Rajinder Dogra and Ram Mohan Johri (Member Administrative) said the notification was discriminatory in light of the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Act, 2020, and stayed 'the operation of the relevant provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Revenue (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rules of 2009' that spoke of Urdu as the required language. Abdullah and Mufti both reiterated the importance of Urdu for understanding land records. 'Even before Independence, our revenue records were in Urdu. How will a staff member in the Revenue Department work if he/she doesn't know Urdu? I don't think staff members of the Revenue Department who don't know Urdu can be efficient,' Abdullah said. 'It is only logical that applicants for the post of Naib Tehsildar possess basic proficiency in the language,' Mufti said.
Hans India
8 hours ago
- Hans India
Tunnel project row: BJP MP Tejasvi Surya challenges Dy CM Shivakumar to public debate
Bengaluru: National President of the BJP Yuva Morcha and MP Tejasvi Surya on Thursday challenged Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar, who is also the Bengaluru Development Minister for an open talk and public debate regarding the Bengaluru tunnel project. Tejasvi Surya claimed that the project only helps elite car owners and won't reduce the traffic jams in Bengaluru. Responding to the attacks by Surya, Karnataka Congress had stated on its social media handle X, "This isn't about political credit. It's about 'Brand Bengaluru', a city that needs the state and Centre to work together. We welcome public audits, technical scrutiny, and open debate. But don't stall progress by labelling every transformative project as wasteful. Citizens deserve efficient execution, not polarised discourse." Surya refering to this, stated on Thursday, "If you truly welcome technical scrutiny and public debate on this tunnel road project, I propose an open discussion with Dy CM Shivakumar who is spearheading this project. Let the time and place be of your choosing." "It will definitely be beneficial to discuss the merits and demerits in a healthy way. Am waiting to hear back from you. Thanks," he said. "When we oppose Bengaluru's tunnel road project, some cite Singapore as a model. But even Singapore scrapped similar mega tunnel plans after realising they were costly, unsustainable and ineffective at decongestion. Don't cherry-pick examples. Learn from Singapore's correction too," Surya stated. He further asked Dy CM Shivakumar, "Why should we repeat mistakes others have walked away from?" "BJP will strongly oppose the tunnel road project, which is nothing but a loot of public money under the guise of development," the Bengaluru South MP claimed. "This 18-km tunnel road project for Bengaluru, costing Rs 18,500 crore, is planned exclusively for cars from Hebbal to Dairy Circle. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) and feasibility report are riddled with inconsistencies and irregularities," Surya claimed. According to the report, the tunnel can carry 600–1,600 people per hour and if bikes and two-wheelers are allowed, it could handle about 7,500 people per hour. However, as of now, the plan allows no access for buses, autos or two-wheelers. The BJP MP has raised objections to the project stating that if a Metro were built instead, it could carry 25,000 people per hour. 'Do we want a project that helps only car owners or a metro project that benefits 25,000 people per hour?' Surya asked. The Deputy Chief Minister himself said a toll would be levied on the tunnel. The DPR mentions one way toll fee of Rs 660. 'How many people in Bengaluru can afford to pay Rs 660 daily to commute?' he asked. 'This is a tunnel for the millionaires of Sadashivanagar, Dollar's Colony, and 4th Block Koramangala. It seems tailor-made to help D.K. Shivakumar and his close relatives travel to their homes in Koramangala,' Surya alleged. Surya stated, 'BJP opposes the tunnel road project. We will fight to ensure that every single rupee of the people is protected.'
