Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday lashed out at the Yogi Adityanath government for the poor state of the infrastructure, particularly the road network, in the state.
“The maintenance of roads in the state is so poor that it is difficult to make out whether there are potholes in the roads or the road is in pothole. The poor state of roads is the single biggest cause of fatal road accidents in the state in which precious lives are lost and serious injuries are sustained by several people every day,” the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said.
Yadav added, “During the Samajwadi Party regime, a network of good quality roads was laid which has been spoiled by the present Bharatiya Janata Party government.”
Drawing attention towards the contradictory statements of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, the SP chief said, “It is indeed ironical that Keshav Prasad Maurya claims that the roads have been made free of potholes while the chief minister is issuing repeated orders for making roads pothole-free.”
Yadav said, “The chief minister himself recently suffered the pain of travelling on road full of potholes, prompting him to issue orders to make roads pothole-free by the end of November 30.”
Earlier in March 2017, soon after coming to power, Yogi Adityanath had directed officials to make all roads free of potholes within 100 days.
Maurya, who holds the Public Works Department portfolio, is responsible for the construction of state highways and their maintenance.
The SP president said the performance standard of the BJP government had so far been very poor. He said the BJP government in UP had completed more than half of its term and during this period its performance was very bad.
“It appears that the officers of the PWD are either not complying with the orders of their minister or they are misleading Keshav Prasad Maurya by giving him false information.
Yadav said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had far better information and understanding of the state of the roads than the PWD Minister.
Listing the achievements of his government, the SP chief said that besides constructing the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, his government had made elevated road in Ghaziabad and built a network of four-lane roads across the state while the BJP government was busy claiming the works of the Samajwadi Party government as its own.