When all protest roads lead to national highways

The blockade of NH1A off Jammu marks the fifth time in less than three months that national highways have become agitation sites.

The blockade of NH1A off Jammu marks the fifth time in less than three months that national highways have become agitation sites. While NH1A stands paralysed, the country may see yet another national highway getting blocked tomorrow. In Assam, the All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union has announced a 1,000-hour-long economic blockade starting at 5 am on Wednesday to make a strong case to secure Scheduled Tribe status for six communities of the state.

It started with the Gurjjar agitation last year and has promptly caught the fancy of protestors and demonstrators. The national highway blockade tactic has emerged as a surefire strategy to grab public attention and bring to the national platform community-specific woes. The National Highways Authority of India, which constructs and maintains these highways, has borne the brunt of these protests, losing toll revenue at blocked stretches and incurring huge losses in the case of damage to the highway or toll infrastructure.

The blockade of NH1A — the lifeline of the Kashmir Valley and the only access route for all supplies — has occupied centrestage with hundreds of loaded trucks lined up for 12 days now. The paralysis of this key link to the Valley resulted in the PMO calling an all-party meet on Tuesday to resolve the crisis.

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Even as its highways are held hostage for days together by protestors, the NHAI and the Ministry of Shipping, Road transport & Highways (MORTH) are able to do precious little to save the high investment infrastructure — all because law and order is under the states and the Ministry of Home Affairs. A proposal, however, is in the works to penalise organisers of these protests, say sources in the ministry. “National highways are blocked repeatedly and it is a cause of serious concern. However, this is a law and order problem and it is for the states and the Home Ministry to find a solution to this issue. While the National Highways Act provides for prosecution of those encroaching or obstructing NHs, blockades are essentially a law and order subject and this ministry is not equipped to handle them,” says Brahm Dutt, Secretary, MORTH.

Though existing laws provide for action against anyone who causes damage to a highway, prosecuting a mob has never been easy. MORTH has asked the Home Ministry and the Law Ministry to allow it to penalise organisers of such protests, referring to NH31A’s frequent blockades.

“There are provisions under CRPC to punish those who cause disruption on roads and the National Highways Act has a specific provision to imprison for five years and penalise a huge group for damaging a national highway. However, it is difficult to press charges against a mob. So, it has been proposed to the Home Ministry to enact a special legislation for NH31A, which is the only link to Sikkim,” said a senior official.

That highway blockades and more so the frequency and ease with which diverse groups managed to do so is a serious issue of concern is quite clear. Gurjjars have done it twice in over a year. Sikhs blocked highways in Punjab to express their resentment over Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s bodyguard shooting a Sikh in Mumbai. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha blocked NH31A,and now it’s a land transfer issue in J&K which has NH1A closed to traffic. “It is like a throwback to the 1980s when strikes were common,” said the official.

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It’s the Gurjjars who first started the trend, holding two arterial national highways connecting Rajasthan hostage for a week in May-June 2007. Taken by surprise, the state law and order machinery couldn’t do much while the agitating Gurjjars attacked highways and toll booths. The Gurjjar protest cost nearly Rs 2.5 crore for Jaipur-Agra highway alone. While the blockade ended after days, the state Government hardly learnt any lessons. Exactly a year later, the Gurjjars blocked the NH11. “For 10 days, toll plaza at Mahua was shut down,” say officials from the NHAI.

The ability to bring a state’s economy to a standstill by blocking a highway pressurised governments and brought them to negotiation tables sooner than any other form of agitation and that was not lost on protestors. Thus, even as the Rajasthan Government was negotiating with the Gurjjars over their demand for a ST status, the GJM blocked another national highway. When the bodyguards of the Dera leader shot dead a Sikh, it sparked off protests that borrowed from the Gurjjar strategy: NH10, NH1A, NH21 were all blocked.

Jammu’s losses

During the month of July

Transport sector Rs 200 crore

Traders Rs 80 crore

Industry Rs 50 to 70 crore per day

Lakhanpur toll post Rs 4 crore

The Jammu and Kashmir Bank suffered huge losses as transactions across its branches — first in the Valley and then in Jammu — almost stopped.

Vehicles coming to Jammu before the crisis: 2000 per day

Vehicles coming to Jammu now: less than 500

Pilgrims to Vaishno devi

In June: 20000 per day Now: 5000

Pilgrims to Amarnath

Beginning June 18 till protests started 15000 to 20000 daily. Now: 400

Valley’s Losses

Fruit traders: Rs 125 crore;

Business community: Rs 3,000 crore;

Tourism industry: Rs 200 crore

(Sources: Transport Association, Raghunath Bazaar Traders’ Association, Deputy Commissioner of Excise, Federation of Industries, Jammu, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board)

Protest Calendar

May 23 to June 27: Gurjjars block NH11

June 10 to 17: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha blocks NH31A

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June 24: Sikh-Dera Sacha Sauda row leads to blockade of NH10 near Sirsa and NH1A near Jammu

August 1 onwards: NH1A blocked