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Government criticised on roads front

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, MARCH 3. The Madhya Pradesh Government's performance on the roads front came in for severe criticism during a discussion on the budgetary demands of the State Public Works department in the State Assembly today. The Opposition members were united in charging that the Bharatiya Janata Party had failed miserably on the roads front after coming to power in the State by raising the issue of bad roads and electricity crisis.

The Congress MLA, Ajay Singh, targeted the PWD by pointing out that this department had lagged far behind in properly utilising Rs. 654 crores, received from NABARD, Central Roads Fund and Railways for the financial year 2004-2005. Only one-third of this amount had been utilized till December 2004. It is an irony that after coming to power promising good roads, the State BJP Government had lagged behind on the roads front, he said, adding instead of just seeking budgetary allocations, the Government should be able to spend and perform. Mr. Singh said that the pervious Congress regime had introduced the concept of building a network of highways in the State under the Bond-BOT (build operate and transfer) scheme.

The present BJP Government, which is continuing with the Bond-BOT system, should also demonstrate a long-term vision and stop reverting back to single lane highways, he emphasised. Citing the example of Tamil Nadu, he said, every village in that State is now connected with all-weather tar roads. Tamil Nadu had adopted a positive strategy and decided to connect every divisional headquarter and the State capital with a double-lane road. Similarly the district headquarters were linked with the divisional headquarters in that State, he said adding what was happening in this State was entirely different. He wanted to know what criteria had been adopted for selecting roads to be developed with funds being received from the Asian Development Bank. He also emphasised the need for completing road projects under a fixed time-frame.

Mr. Singh even stressed the importance of environment protection and said that the State Forest department be asked to take up tree plantation along highways being developed by the PWD. Mr. Singh made a special case to bifurcate the Bela-Govindgarh-Churhat section of the Jhansi-Singrauli National Highway-75 into NH-75A since traffic on this section remains grounded for at least six months in a year due to Army firing. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA, Ramlakhan Sharma, said that the State BJP Government should start concentrating on the quality of roads as they had come to power promising good roads. He even took a dig at the PWD Minister, Kailash Vijayvargiya.

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Government criticised on roads front

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