Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Purvanchal Expressway, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav sought to claim the credit for the project saying it was initiated during his regime and it is being relaunched by the prime minister.
SP already held a protest in Azamgarh on July 12 over the PM’s programme to lay the foundation of the 340 km long Expressway. The six-lane expressway, which can be expanded to eight lanes, will provide a smooth ride between lucknow and Ghazipur in eastern UP connecting the state capital lucknow with districts like Barabanki, sultanpur, Amethi ,Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar. The Expressway is likely to be completed in 36 months.
“This was originally Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway, but the word Samajwadi has been dropped,” the Samajwadi Party chief said in a press conference at the party headquarters here on Saturday. Almost at the same time, UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma addressed a press meet refuting the charges. Sharma said by claiming credit for the projects being implemented by “the government of the day”, Yadav was insulting the development work itself.
Attacking the BJP, Akhilesh Yadav said the specifications of the project had been lowered by the BJP government. “We used to claim that even if you move at 120 kmph, a glass of water will not spill on you. When the land was being acquired from farmers, they had given it without any agitation, understanding the need for development,” he said.
“The SP had wanted to construct a six-lane, expandable to eight lanes, Purvanchal Expressway. This will remain six-lane and will not be expanded. Unlike the Agra-lucknow Expressway which can be expanded, the Purvanchal Expressway cannot be expanded,” he said. The SP chief said there would be no service lanes under the new project, and there is no streetlight.
“The BJP people can do anything to lower the costs. The roads are being constructed under PWD standards. Who will construct the toiletsIJ The SP had built amenities which could cater to the passengers of two buses simultaneously,” he said.
Yadav said the BJP could do anything to stay in power, whether it was speaking lies or deceiving people. Only the BJP government had the “immense courage” to claim someone else’s project as their own without any remorse, he added.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav countered the low tender rates of the BJP government saying several amenities and other things which were included in the
SP regime tender has been cancelled just to prove that they have saved the money which in order words can be termed as compromising with the security and safety of the passengers on the expressway.
However, the BJP denied the charges and UP deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, holding alleged that when the foundation stone was laid, there was not only 32 per cent of land acquired for the expressway against the norm of 90 per cent besides no permission nor budgetary funds were approved for the highway.
“The foundation was laid by the SP government just to take electoral mileage just before the 2017 assembly polls. But as people knew their move, the SP government was rejected by the people and BJP was given landslide support,” Dr Sharma said.
The Deputy CM further claimed that Samajwadi Party government gave the tender of Rs 15,158 crores for the expressway but the BJP government saved around Rs 4,000 crores by approving tender worth Rs 11,216 crores. He also said that like the Purvanchal expressway, the SP government had inaugurated the lucknow- Agra expressway which was incomplete just to showcase their work during the assembly polls.” later the BJP government allotted funds for these amenities and now the Expressway was working smoothly,” he stated.
Former UP DGP and presently chairman of the UP State Schedule Caste Commission Brijlal , who was present to defend the government on the law and order issue, claimed that the crime rate has gone down during the BJP regime and alleged that it was the SP which had promoted criminals during their tenure.
Though refusing to make any comment on the BSP’s regime between 2001-12, when he was the DGP in the later stages, Brijlal also said that the government was serious on the crime inside the jails and said that several security measures have been made to tame the criminals.” Till date 62 criminals have been killed in police encounters and property worth Rs 177.56 crores of the absconding criminals have been confiscated,” he disclosed.