CM, Ministers inspect city roads to ensure ‘pothole-free’ Delhi  

Chief Minister Atishi and her Cabinet colleagues on Monday hit the city roads to identify the stretches requiring repairs, a day after the Delhi government announced a campaign to ensure pothole-free Capital ahead of Deepavali.

Ms. Atishi had on Sunday said that a detailed review of a 1,400-km stretch of roads managed by the Public Works Department was done at a meeting chaired by her.

The inspection drew criticism from the BJP and the Congress, which slammed the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for ignoring the issue for about a decade and now taking it up to improve its prospects in the Delhi Assembly election scheduled for February next year.

However, AAP accused the BJP of conspiring to stall development works and said Delhi Ministers will inspect “every inch of the PWD roads” within a week.

“Wherever there are potholes and broken roads, they will be inspected and in the coming three-four weeks, all these roads will be rebuilt,” Ms. Atishi said.

Meanwhile, former Deputy Chief Manish Sisoida, who accompanied Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on an inspection in Patparganj, accused the BJP of “conspiring to ruin” Delhi roads during the entire tenure when Mr. Kejriwal was steering the AAP government as Chief Minister.

“I was jailed in a false case and the BJP’s aim was to stop the works done by Arvind Kejriwal. This [Patparganj] road is a testament to it,” he said.

Reacting to the allegations, BJP legislator and the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, blamed the Delhi government for the situation.

He carried out his own inspection in the Majnu ka Tila area and said that the condition of roads in the city is such that these need to be rebuilt from the scratch.

“No Minister or official is willing to take responsibility for this. If the broken roads are not rebuilt, the BJP will be forced to launch protests across the city,” Mr. Gupta said.

In a statement, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva alleged that the PWD had been under the control of the “most corrupt faces” of the AAP government under Mr. Kejriwal.

“No amount of last-minute inspection ore repair work will save this government,” Mr. Sachdeva said, adding that Delhi residents won’t forgive AAP for “years of incompetence and corruption” while voting during the Assembly poll.

The Congress too called the inspection a “political drama”.

“The AAP government waited till the election year to give attention to the broken roads. These should have been re-carpeted as a matter of routine by the PWD,” Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav said.

Published - October 01, 2024 12:57 am IST