Cost of development: Farmers protest route of Lahore-Karachi road project

Claim the road should pass through Tandalianwal’s barren land instead of fertile Sammundri.

FAISALABAD:

Hundreds of farmers from Sammundri tehsil and adjacent areas staged a protest demonstration on Saturday against the proposed route of the Lahore-Karachi Motorway project.

The farmers claimed the authorities had “grabbed” hundreds of acres of fertile land to build the road.

The farmers gathered on the Sammundri-Faisalabad Road and staged a sit-in. They chanted slogans against the authorities for depriving them of their land.

Talking to journalists, Aamir Ameen, a protesting farmer from village 210-GB, said the government’s decision to construct the motorway through Sammundri would ruin the area’s farmers.

“The Lahore-Karachi Motorway is passing through villages 197-GB, 198-GB, 204-GB, 205-GB, 206-GB, 210-GB, 211-GB, 212-GB, 213-GB, 443-GB, 445-GB, 475-GB, 476-GB, 479-GB and some adjoining areas,” he said.

Another protester, Chaudhry Haq Nawaz, said the farmers would be unable to earn a living without their land.

“We will become unemployed and will not be able to feed our children. We do not know any other skill except farming,” he said.

Kisan Board president Sardar Zafar Hussain said motorway engineers had designed the project without consulting those who would be affected and the road was set to pass through some of Sammundri’s most fertile areas.

“The motorway should pass through the barren land of Tandlianwala area,” Zafar Hussain said.

Zafar said every acre of land in Sammundri tehsil was fertile and produced crops worth Rs40,000 to Rs50,000 every season.

“The barren land of Tandlianwala neither produces any crop, nor generates any revenue for the government,” he said.

“We have repeatedly requested the government to change the route of Lahore-Karachi Motorway, but the authorities have not listened to us,” he said.

“Now we have decided to launch a series of protests. These protests will continue until our demands are accepted,” Zafar said.

National Highways Project Director Tanveer Ahmad said the government was committed to completing the motorway project in collaboration with China.

“After due consultation with all stakeholders, the Chinese engineers had designed the motorway route and now it will not be changed,” Tanveer Ahmed said.

The official said that the district administration was responsible for paying the farmers a fair compensation for the land acquired for the project.

Ahmad said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was being regularly informed about the project’s progress.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2014.