Lack of coordination among various relevant agencies has been the bane of our developmental activity. Most of the projects have either failed or got delayed owing to deep-set inertia of the administration. Land acquisition is the primary bottleneck which any developmental project has to go through. How can a project be estimated or blueprinted if the issue of land acquisition is not resolved before embarking on the venture. This is precisely what has happened in any cases and the one case in point is of the alternate connectivity to Katra town from Domel road through Nangal, Parnote, Sool and Magal villages. A steel girder bridge had to be built and that was completed in 2009. But the link road on one side of the bridge could not be completed owing to the dispute with landowners. It is four years and the dispute continues unresolved. The cost of alternate connectivity has escalated from Rs 1.50 crore to Rs 1.97 crore, and connectivity is still not in sight. The purpose of the alternate connectivity was to reduce traffic congestion and provide convenience to the people who had to reach their villages by covering the long distance to Katra town. R&B which is executing the project, should have first got the land acquired through revenue department and then begun the construction of the bridge and link. Just earmarking 10 lakh rupees for compensation to the landowners does not make much sense. It has also to be noted that the land records are often faulty and do not support the ground situation or the actual possession of the land. The R&B Department has met with this problem at many places and in many projects and they are expected to have gained experience in tackling the land acquisition problems. Now that the matter of alternate connectivity has been raised, we expect the concerned to resole the dispute and proceed with the building of the link road.
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