Munish Sood
MANDI: The ongoing chaos in the construction of the Mandi-Pathankot (via Dharampur) National Highway-3 reached a flashpoint on Monday night when Dharampur Congress MLA Chandrashekhar Thakur staged a midnight protest at Awahdevi Chowk and sat on an indefinite hunger strike.
Thakur, accusing the highway construction company and officials of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) of gross negligence and corruption, said the people of Dharampur have been left to suffer because of their “criminal indifference.”
“Even the Chief Minister’s directives have been ignored,” he charged during a late-night social media live, adding that he would not end his hunger strike until the responsible company and MoRTH officials are removed.
Flashpoint over negligence
The confrontation peaked earlier in the day when Thakur inspected the Padchu bridge area during his tour of affected panchayats. He described the highway’s condition as “pathetic,” pointing out that no vehicle could pass through. Despite repeated summons, officials took more than three hours to reach the site, and the project director failed to appear at the police station even after five hours.
“People have been forced to live with cracked houses, collapsed retaining walls and unusable link roads because of faulty engineering and reckless execution,” Thakur said. He alleged that the company has been dragging the project at a snail’s pace for four years while openly flouting norms. “This is nothing short of betrayal of public trust,” he thundered, vowing to continue his indefinite hunger strike in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha.
Protest at BJP stronghold’s doorstep
The MLA also announced that he will now operate his office directly from Awahdevi Chowk until the issue is resolved, ensuring public grievances are addressed. The protest site is strategically significant, lying just 3 km from Samirpur, the residence of senior BJP leader Anurag Thakur.
Local residents recalled that during his recent visit, Anurag Thakur had publicly reprimanded the project director after hearing their grievances. Yet, no tangible change followed.
This is not the first time the issue has been raised. Chandrashekhar had flagged the irregularities during the recent monsoon session of the Assembly. Left-affiliated CITU leaders, Sadar MLA Anil Sharma, and activists like Rajesh Kapoor and Anupama Singh have also raised the issue with central ministers. Still, the crisis remains unresolved, leaving Dharampur residents trapped in what they describe as a “four-year ordeal of broken promises and crumbling infrastructure.”
