Jharkhand High Court to fine Rs 1 lakh each day for delay in removing encroachment

Jharkhand High Court in an order on March 9 on the state government warned that after 15 days it would start imposing Rs 1 lakh fine on the state government for each day of delay in removing the encroachment which created obstruction in the completion of the Adityapur Toll Bridge for connecting two industrial townships-Jamshedpur and Adityapur.

The high court has taken serious exception to the fact that even after five years of its order the state had failed to erect the 2.2 km long toll bridge, which includes 1.96 km of road portion.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Bhagawati Prasad and Justice D N Patel said that if the officers failed to remove the encroachments they would be considered incompetent and the court's opinion would be recorded in their service books. The bench fixed next date of hearing on March 25.

In accordance with court's order, industry secretary A P Singh and project head of Adityapur Toll Bridge Company Limited (ATBCL) Dipankar Gupta appeared in person before the court. The court had summoned them to face the proceedings for punishment under contempt of court.

In an affidavit, the project head of ATBCL Dipankar Gupta stated that the effective construction work of 2.2 km bridge which includes approach road from both the ends, was started in June 2008.

He further stated that currently work from Jamshedpur side could not be started due to encroachments on the landing area of bridge particularly in the Ramjanam Nagar Basti. Eviction notices were served to the encroachers in 2007, 2008 and 2010 but till date they could not be removed.

The project head also informed the court that ATBCL had invested Rs 49 crore in the project and it was sustaining loss of about Rs 2 lakh per day due to delay in completion of work.

Counsel representing the state gave an undertaking before the court that the encroachment coming in the way of bridge construction would be cleared within 15 days.

The present case begun when Jan Kalyan Morcha filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in high court in 2003, seeking its directive to the government to construct a second bridge on river Kharkai.