Lucknow, Nov 15 (PTI) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday charged the BJP government with compromising on the quality of Purvanchal Expressway to cut down the project cost and inaugurate it before the Assembly polls to claim credit.
Regretting the denial of permission by the Ghazipur administration to use the expressway on the pretext of its inauguration, the SP chief said his party will offer flowers in a symbolic gesture to mark the inauguration on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 340-km-long expressway connecting Ghazipur with Lucknow in Sultanpur on Tuesday.
“In a bid to make it cheap, there has been a compromise on its quality. To take credit ahead of the polls, the BJP is going to inaugurate the half-baked ( aadha-adhura’) Purvanchal Expressway. There has been a compromise with the quality with which it should have been built,” the SP chief told reporters.
He said the foundation of the expressway was laid during his party’s tenure.
Pointing to the quality of work on the Agra-Lucknow expressway, he said in recent rains, some portion of it caved in.
“If you had travelled on the Agra-Lucknow expressway, you would have experienced that tea will not spill even if you drive at 100 km per hour,” he said.
“But, we don’t know which bitumen has been mixed that if you increase the speed, then you will have stomachache and even pain in your waist,” Yadav said.
He also claimed that the government snatched the expressway work from companies which could have made a better road.
“We feel happy that the prime minister has not inaugurated any quality road like the one made during the rule of the Samajwadis,” he said, adding that they are not taking side of the companies from which the work was snatched.
“Those companies are doing the best job in the country. If they had made the expressway, it would have been better than the Agra-Lucknow expressway,” Yadav said.
“But, we don’t know which quality has been brought by our Baba CM, he said taking a dig at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
“Dividers and medians have been reduced to make it cheap,” the former UP chief minister alleged.
However, Akhilesh Yadav did not mention names of the companies.
Yadav also said if the SP is voted to power, it will construct a market along the expressway and provide all facilities.
Yadav further said, “The Samajwadi Party will on November 16 offer flowers in a symbolic gesture to inaugurate it. Very soon the SP will make a programme to move on the expressway.”
Citing a previous episode when his party workers were not allegedly allowed to travel on the Agra-Noida expressway by the BSP government, he said, “Police force was deployed but brave SP workers took their cycle on their shoulders, moved on the expressway and inaugurated it.”
He added that this time, the party’s ‘yatra’ will start from Ghazipur and then move on to Ballia, Mau, Azamgarh, Sultanpur, Ambedkarnagar, Barabanki and Lucknow.
“It is possible that the SP workers take their cycle on their shoulders and ride it on Purvanchal Expressway. Who will stop them? They (BJP) don’t have any idea or vision,” he said.
The SP chief claimed that on the pretext of inauguration, nobody has been allowed to travel on it.
“I have heard that boulders have been placed at the entry point of the expressway. Police have already been deployed outside homes of SP leaders. Those who keep boulders on roads and highways, what roads and highways will they build,” he said.
Taking a jibe at the BJP, he said its “favourite work” is to “construct toilets”, which lack water.
“The Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway, which is going to be inaugurated, does not have any toilet. So, one should take care of himself before entering the expressway. Imagine what will happen to a mother or sister? What facilities does this government have,” he asked.
Before the press conference, the Bharatiya Kisan Sena merged into the Samajwadi Party, and the Political Justice Party extended support to the SP.
Akhilesh Yadav also unveiled a book, “The Socialist Hero”.
