Tral residents demand compensation before construction of road
Pulwama: Residents of Aripal belt in Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday staged a peaceful protest and demanded compensation before the government executes of work on a proposed road in Aripal.
Locals from Gizbal, Lam, Soinad and its adjacent areas in Aripal tehsil said that the government recently marked land for the construction of a road in the area.
They said that they are not against the construction of the road, but the government should identify the land owners whose land has been marked and provide them adequate compensation.
They also demanded that road must be handed over to an agency which can work at full pace and provide adequate compensation to the land owners as well.
“If the government fails to do that we will hamper the work and will not allow any construction,” the locals threatened.
“We welcome the decision of the government to construct road in our area but they must think about the landowners as well as the area is an economically backward region,” Manzoor Ahmad, a local resident added.
He said that similar roads were constructed in the area and locals were promised that they will be compensated, however, years have passed but they were not given a single penny, that is why we demand that compensation should be provided to the landowners in advance.
Another protestor said that they have met so many officials in this regard from last few days, but so far they haven’t got any satisfactory answer from their side.
The protestors requested the higher ups in the district administration to look into the issue and help provide adequate compensation to those whose land will be acquired for the construction of the road.
Jahangeer Ganaie
