The confrontation between Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Minister Anirudh Singh and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in the wake of the collapse of a five-storeyed building in Bhattakufar on the outskirts of Shimla, has now taken political overtones.
The minister and his supporters had allegedly entered into a scuffle and assaulted the NHAI Project Manager, Achal Jindal, near the site in Shimla on Monday.
While the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways personally intervened and urged Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to take immediate and exemplary action against all perpetrators on Tuesday, BJP leader and former MP Avinash Rai Khanna has now sought the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), calling the attack on the NHAI officer in Shimla a clear-cut violation of human rights.
Khanna has forwarded the complaint filed by the President of the NHAI Engineers Association against the Himachal minister and his associates to the Chairman of the NHRC and urged the Commission to take cognizance and act as per the law.
An FIR has already been lodged against the HP Panchayati Raj Minister and his associates for the assault on the NHAI officials. Following this, the minister has refuted the allegations and instead leveled serious accusations regarding the functioning of NHAI in Himachal Pradesh. Anirudh Singh expressed concern over the plight of the affected people who lost their homes and the collapsed building.
On the other hand, NHAI has raised the issue of safety and security for its personnel working on various highway projects across Himachal Pradesh in light of the incident.
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