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Will inaugurate ‘Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway’ in symbolic way: Akhilesh
SP chief charges BJP government with compromising on the quality of Purvanchal Expressway in a bid to cut down the project cost and inaugurate it before the assembly polls to claim credit
LUCKNOW Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said when Prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the Purvanchal expressway on Tuesday, the party cadre will also “symbolically inaugurate the expressway at different locations and might even ride bicycles at these places” as the Ghazipur district administration denied permission for his Rath Yatra.
Akhilesh said the foundation of the Samajwadi Purvanchal expressway was laid during his party’s tenure and charged the BJP government with compromising on the quality of the Purvanchal Expressway in a bid to cut down the project cost and inaugurate it before the assembly polls to claim credit.
He also claimed that the BJP was five years behind the SP as during the SP regime, fighter jets had landed on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and now a similar exercise would be undertaken on the Purvanchal Expressway.
“They have copied our government’s event. What they are doing, we were done and dusted with it five years ago when our government inaugurated the Agra-Lucknow expressway and touchdowns by IAF combat jets on the expressway had marked the event. They are copying us five years after that,” he said.
Amid the government’s denial for permission to his Vijay Yatra from Ghazipur to Azamgarh on Tuesday, the former chief minister called a press conference in Lucknow where, among other things, Akhilesh also raised doubts over the quality of construction of the Purvanchal expressway.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 340-km expressway connecting the state capital with the eastern districts including Mau, Azamgarh, Barabanki with links to major cities of Prayagraj and Varanasi.
The event is scheduled in Sultanpur on the 3.3-km stretch of the expressway, which has been developed as an emergency landing facility for the Indian Air Force. An air show by the Air Force, including touchdown by fighter jets at the airstrip, will mark the occasion.
On Ghazipur administration’s denial of permission to his Vijay Yatra, Akhilesh said: “What kind of threat they face from me. Azamgarh is nearly 100 km from Sultanpur, where the PM is going to inaugurate the Samajwadi government’s project. Yet they denied permission for my rath yatra.”
“I have heard that boulders have been placed at different points on the Purvanchal expressway to block it. In Sultanpur, SP leaders are being restricted to their homes by the police,” quipped Akhilesh.
He said: “It is a government of Ram naam japna, paraya maal apna (A Hindi idiom that means calling someone else’s work as one’s own). The government first changed the name of the Samajwadi expressway to Purvanchal expressway, and then called the expressway theirs. They also compromised on its quality, so much so that during recent rains, the expressway caved in at several places.”
Akhilesh claimed that the government, instead of using normal bitumen, used rubber mixed bitumen in the construction of the Purvanchal expressway.
“They are calling it mixed polymers. If you drive on the Agra-Lucknow expressway at a speed over 100 kmph, with a tea cup on the car’s dashboard, the tea won’t spill even at that speed. But if you ride the Purvanchal expressway at the same speed, the tea will spill on your clothes and you would also end up with bodyache and backache. The quality of the expressway was compromised,” he alleged.
When asked how the SP cadre intends riding bicycles on the expressway (on Tuesday) when the road will be blocked, Akhilesh said: “The Yamuna expressway from Noida was blocked when the SP cadres, including me, had to ride on it. We carried our bicycles on our shoulders and then entered the expressway. After that our government came to power in 2012. Who will be able to stop them (on Tuesday) if they carry their bicycles on their shoulders and then ride the expressway.”
He said in the days to come the bicycle’s speed will increase (bicycle is SP’s poll symbol) and people will also cure BJP’s fever (of arrogance).
Recalling the inauguration of the Agra-Lucknow expressway, Akhilesh said: “When we had invited Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) to lay the foundation stone for the expressway, he said that he will not do it unless the date of inauguration too is fixed beforehand. He laid the foundation stone, and then inaugurated it 21 months after that.”
ON ‘NAME CHANGE’ OF AZAMGARH
When asked that the BJP government might change the name of his Lok Sabha constituency Azamgarh, the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said: “We will again change the name. If this government changes the name, then by the time the paint on the signboard dries up, our government will come in.”
On Saturday, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, in the presence of union home minister Amit Shah, had hinted at changing the name of Azamgarh to Aryamgarh. While laying the foundation stone of a state university in Azamgarh, Adityanath said the educational institute will truly turn the district into Aryamgarh.
Pankaj Jaiswal
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