Villagers block movement of trucks in Pathankot village

PATHANKOT: The residents of Behrian Bajurgan village near Madhopur in Pathankot district dug the link road to stop the movement of trucks carrying gravel material on late Monday evening, leaving hundreds of trucks stranded near the site of the crushers.

ADC (panchayat) Balraj Singh was seen trying to calm crusher industry owners and villagers.

The tiff started when a local resident of the village Paramjeet claimed that he had taken the land on lease from the village panchayat which was being used earlier by the truckers and hence will not allow movement of trucks on his land.

Sarpanch Geeta Thakur too accepted that the panchayat had given the land on lease to Paramjeet.

Vipin Mahajan, president of Madhopur Crusher Industry Association, dubbed the digging of the road by villagers a move to harm the industry.

He said the route was being used by the industry for many years and 32 crusher industries will face closure if the administration fails to give them way to ply their trucks.

He said that a crusher unit comes into operation after getting clearance from nearly 14 departments and a huge investment and providing the link roads to transport the mining material was duty of the administration.

We have briefed the matter to ADC (panchayat) and if our problem is not resolved, we will take legal route, said Mahajan.

Balraj Singh said that he will take up the matter with the panchayat members and sarpanch on Tuesday.