Kullu: A recent Supreme Court order mandating strict land-use restrictions along national highways has triggered concern across Himachal Pradesh.Activists are warning of widespread livelihood disruptions, and have urged the Himachal Pradesh govt to file a review petition.The order, issued by a bench of Justice J K Maheshwari and Justice Atul S Chandurkar on April 13, requires state govts to prohibit residential construction within 40 metres and commercial construction within 75 metres on both sides of the highway. The SC order is aimed at improving highway safety by preventing accidents.Activists said that a “one-size-fits-all” approach might be practical for the plains of Punjab, Haryana or Uttar Pradesh, but imposing this formula on the vertical topography of Himachal Pradesh was not just impractical but also a geographical impossibility.“In a mountainous state like Himachal, habitable and cultivable land is incredibly scarce. Our highways do not run through vast open fields. They are carved into steep mountainsides, often with a vertical rock cliff on one side and deep river gorges on the other,” said Brigadier Khushal Thakur (retd), a Kargil war veteran and the patron of the Bhumi Prabhavit Sangh, an organisation that led a campaign to provide fair compensation to all those whose land was acquired during the four-laning of the Kiratpur-Manali highway.“If a citizen is forced to leave 40 metres from the highway for a home, or 75 metres for a small shop, where will the people build? To move 40 metres away from the road in Himachal usually means either falling off a cliff into a river or attempting to build a house mid-air on a 90-degree rock face. The sheer topography does not allow for such deep setbacks,” said Thakur.According to activists, the ruling also poses an existential threat to the livelihoods of millions of Himachalis, who rely on small-scale, roadside businesses like dhabas, small homestays, apple loading points and local repair shops.“The ruling, especially for commercial activities, will render thousands of people jobless, stripping them of their right to livelihood. Such a rule is not possible to implement in the hilly and mountain terrains of Himachal Pradesh. The state govt must take note of the fact that the entire highway economy of Himachal Pradesh will be badly hit due to the 75-metre rule,” said Dharmender Sharma, a resident of Nagwain in Mandi district, who owns a house and commercial establishments along the Kiratpur-Manali highway.Madan Sharma, a Bilaspur-based activist who has been working on the rehabilitation of people displaced by highway projects for more than a decade, said encroachments along highways were a major problem.“The National Highway Authority of India and the govt should remove encroachments along the highways as these create accident-prone zones. But it’s also true that setting 40-metre and 75-metre limits will invite a new set of problems in the hilly areas due to geographical constraints, impacting residents and especially the highway economy,” said Sharma.Thakur and other stakeholders have urged Himachal Pradesh to file a review petition with the court, seeking hill-specific norms that account for the state’s fragile, vertical geography.“The state govt cannot remain a silent spectator while an entire population faces displacement and economic ruin. The Himachal Pradesh govt must immediately file a review petition or an appeal in the Supreme Court,” said Thakur.“The state’s legal counsel must present comprehensive topographical data, satellite imagery and socio-economic reports to the apex court. We must strongly advocate for a ‘hill state exemption’ or the formulation of separate, hill-specific zoning parameters. A setback of 3 to 5 metres might be the maximum feasible limit in many of our steep valleys,” Thakur added.MSID:: 130731311 413 |
