Set up patrol teams to curb encroachment of NH land: SC
NEW DELHI:
Supreme Court
has directed that a dedicated surveillance team consisting of state police be constituted for manning national highways. These teams are to constantly carry out patrolling to prevent any unauthorised occupation of highway lands.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said that national highways are the property of Centre and it is the responsibility of Centre to ensure its maintenance and prevent any encroachment.
"It is the obligation of Centre to maintain national highways. Maintenance of highways includes obligation to keep them in good condition. It also includes keeping them free of encroachments and, most importantly, providing adequate safety measures to reduce possibility of accidents," it said.
"We direct Centre to constitute surveillance teams consisting of state police or other forces. The duty of the teams will be to do patrolling regularly and punctually. Even this compliance shall be reported within a period of three months from today," the bench said.
The bench said highways must be kept under surveillance by CCTV cameras. It also directed Centre to give wide publicity to availability of 'Rajmargyatra' mobile application on print, electronic, as well as social media.
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