Crime has hit road project, Centre tells HC

PATNA: Additional solicitor general Nageshwar Rao appeared in person before a division bench of the Patna High Court, presided over by Chief Justice Ravi S Dhavan, on Thursday and prayed for the hearing of the IITian Satyendra Dubey murder case.
But since it was not the same bench which had been hearing the Dubey murder case, the matter was not heard on Thursday.On Rao''s prayer, the CJ, who was sitting with Justice Nagendra Rai, fixed March 3 as the next date of hearing.
The PIL in this murder case, filed by high court advocate M P Gupta, had earlier been listed for hearing for Thursday. Engineer Dubey, who was working on the Golden Quadrilateral project, was shot dead at Gaya in November last year.
When Rao expressed his desire to place before the court the confidential report of the expert committee, constituted by the Union government in connection with the Dubey murder case, the CJ said that it be done on March 3 or be handed over to high court''s registrar general Sadanand Mukherjee.
The affidavit filed on Thursday on behalf of the secretary, ministry for road transport and highways, said the law and order situation in Bihar has been "a major factor behind the delay in the implementation of the project (Golden Quadrilateral)".
According to the affidavit, against the scheduled 59.89 per cent work to be completed till date on the Varanasi-Mohania route, only 20.51 per cent has been done. Similarly, against the scheduled 76.33 per cent work on the Mohania-Sasaram route, only 25.55 per cent work has been completed.
Against the scheduled 56.58 per cent work on the Sasaram-Dehri route, only 6.27 per cent work has been done and against the scheduled 74.40 per cent work on the Dehri-Aurangabad route, only 47.02 per cent work has been done.
Against the scheduled 54.43 per cent work to be completed on the Aurangabad-Barachatti route, only 16.32 work was done and against the scheduled 55.68 per cent work on the Rajganj-Barakata route, only 11.40 per cent work has been completed till date, the affidavit said.
Another affidavit was also filed on behalf of the secretary, ministry of home affairs, in the high court on Thursday.