The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Uttarakhand government has issued strict instructions to the concerned authorities to ensure six thousand kilometres of roads in the state are pothole-free within one and a half months. The direction for the construction of roads comes amid criticism from the Congress-led Opposition and months before the state goes to the polls.
The Congress party has also questioned the BJP government’s campaign, saying that they had merely invented another way to carry out corruption. While the government claimed the credit for ongoing work, new potholes emerged again within a week.
Uttarakhand PWD minister Satpal Maharaj told the media that the campaign of the Public Works Department started on September 15 and is aimed at making roads pothole-free by October 31. “During this period, the department will work to repair the roads by doing patchwork for 5,827 km of roads. But, the continuous rain has been a big challenge for us. However, the department has started the work,” he said.
“About one and a half thousand kilometres of roads has already become pothole-free,” he added.
Congress, the opposition party in the state, has questioned the timing of the government’s campaign, which comes just before elections. Congress party workers said that repairing the potholes on the roads that have been broken for the last four-and-a-half years will not work.
State Congress President Ganesh Godiyal said, “BJP has found a new way of corruption by giving tenders to its workers without issuing any notification. Congress will get its verification of the work done in every constituency. The BJP is giving contracts to its workers on the pretext of repairing the road and government funds are being diverted.
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