By IANS,
Chandigarh : More than 100 industrialists from Himachal Pradesh took part in a march here Wednesday to protest against the Haryana government’s indifferent attitude in repairing the national highway from Pinjore to Baddi, some 30 km away here.
The industrialists, who have their units in Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, marched from Panchkula to Chandigarh.
They presented a memorandum to the secretary of the Haryana Public Works Department (PWD) as well as to the national highway authorities.
Led by Rajender Guleria, president of the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industries association (BBNIA), the industrialists met Mahesh Kumar, engineer-in-chief, PWD, Haryana, and apprised him of the situation.
“The businessmen community of the area is suffering for the last four years. We have met a number of officials but nothing substantial has worked out. This is our last attempt to convince the authorities. The next time we will intensify our protest and involve the common man and other unions of the area,” Rajinder Guleria told IANS Wednesday in Chandigarh.
“The engineer-in-chief has assured us a quick and permanent solution to this problem. This patch of national highway (NH) 21A has been deteriorating over the past years and is full of potholes that lead to perennial traffic jams,” Guleria added.
“No one wants to come here for business. All our office vehicles are in bad shape. There are no street lights and crime in this area is an all time high,” said Anoop Singh Suryavanshi, deputy general manager of Venus Remedies Ltd.
“More than 3,000 small and large scale industries are suffering. This also leads to stress and cervical problems among our employees and wastage of precious fuel and growing pollution,” added Suryavanshi.
Representatives of all major industrial bodies and members of the truck and transport unions as well as local citizens have decided to hold a protest on the intersection of NH22 and NH21A at Pinjore Sep 10 to press their demands, Guleria said.