Following the death of a local resident in a road accident on Friday, villagers in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district blocked a key highway and expressed their anger for nearly half an hour, prompting police to fire about 90 tear gas shells, an official said.
The official informed that a youth from Gamdi village was hit by a speeding car in the morning, resulting in his immediate death on National Highway 48.
The highway links Gujarat’s Shamlaji town with Himmatnagar town, and it also connects Udaipur in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan.
Sabarkantha district Superintendent of Police, Vijay Patel, stated that the delay in constructing a flyover close to Gamdi village was already causing discontent among the locals.
“Following the death of a youngster from Gamdi village in a road accident, the villagers came on to the road and blocked the highway as a mark of protest. When police reached the spot in three vehicles to clear the blockade, the villagers hurled stones at them and then set one of the vehicles on fire,” he said.
He said that more police were sent in to contain the situation and that they fired close to 90 tear gas shells to disperse the demonstrators and clear the blockade.
The local police, according to the SP, will file two separate FIRs: one for the fatal accident and another for the locals’ aggressive conduct.
“Villagers told us that such accidents are taking place because of the delay in construction of a flyover on the highway. We learnt that though the flyover near Gamdi village has been approved and a contract was awarded in the past, the contractor was blacklisted by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for not starting the work in time,” Patel said.
“Since the contractor has approached the high court against the order and obtained a stay, the work came to a halt. NHAI officials told us that the high court vacated the stay on May 14 and a new tender will be issued soon,” the SP said.
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