No problems in land acquisition from West Bengal, says AITC's Dola Sen

New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) There are no problems in land acquisition from West Bengal, said AITC member Dola Sen in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Sen said her leader Mamata Banerjee has done 26 days of fasting agitation on land acquisitions and added this Parliament has changed the colonial land acquisition law twice because of her.

Raising a supplementary during zero hour, Sen asked whether the Centre is following a federal structure and coordinating with the state government on the land acquisition process there.

On this, State Minister for Road Transport and Highways Harsh Malhotra replied that land acquisition is done under the NHAI Act. Moreover, the process is also simplified through a land acquisition portal named as bhoomirashi.

Moreover, the acquisition process is done by the state government officials. In this majority of the work is done by the state government official.

He further informed that all workers engaged in the construction of highways are provided "minimum wages as per the state labour laws".

Samik Bhattacharya from the BJP asked about the status of the four expressways passing through West Bengal - Kharagpur-Burdwan-Moregram Expressway, Gorakhpur-Siliguri Expressway, Varanasi-Kolkata Expressway and Raxaul-Haldia Expressway.

He asked whether the state government is cooperating in land acquisitions and the actual reality of the projects. Replying to it, Malhotra said all four Expressways are at DPR stage.

Bhattacharya further said the Varanasi-Kolkata Expressway terminated at Howrah and whether there is any plan to extend it to Kolkata.

The minister replied that in Varanasi-Kolkata Expressway, work up to Bokaro, Jharkhand, has been awarded as the state government gave clearances on time.

"However, there is a delay in receiving alignment. It is at DPR stage and work would start from necessary approvals," said Malhotra. PTI KRH AS AS