Click to play videoNadia (West Bengal): The National Highway that connects Kolkata with North Bengal and the north east has been crying for attention.
A stretch of over 400 km from Dalkhola in North Bengal to Kolkata is a single carriageway. And it was the road on which the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met with a freak accident on the April 7.
A truck rammed into Mukherjee's car and the minister's head injury couldn’t have been much worse than what it was.
Alarmed, the Union Cabinet has now decided to widen the single carriageway into a four-lane highway.
It's a catch 22 situation for the government now. The need to widen the highway is urgent. But for that it needs to yet again strike at one of the most sensitive chords in Bengal these days - acquisition of farmland.
The National Highways Authority is about to start a preliminary study to determine how much land it would have to acquire to widen the highway.
And it is ironic because it was Mukherjee who provided succour to farmers by restraining state governments from acquiring land for special economic zones.
"If others are willing to part with their land, I really don't have an option. There's no point resisting alone,” says a farmer, Abdul Hakim.
Though legally it's nearly impossible to stop the National Highways Authority from acquiring farmland for expansion of NH-34, opposition parties in Bengal wouldn't let the opportunity slip through fingers if farmers resist.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
