Who gets credit for road? BJP, SP fight

NOIDA: Soon after the announcement of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, BJP and SP are at loggerheads with each other over a 12km stretch of road in Noida. While sitting BJP MLA

Vimla Batham

claims she was getting the road made under the chief minister’s MLA fund, the prospective candidate of SP for the Noida seat, Ashok Chauhan laid the foundation for it on December 29.

A furious Batham has dashed off complaint letters to the governor, chief minister, speaker of legislative assembly, chief secretary and the district magistrate. Batham told TOI on Friday that she would also write to the Election Commission to seek justice. The legislator said that she had been working on the project for the past six months with the state PWD and irrigation departments. “I identified this stretch between Chijarsi and Kulesra in my constituency after getting nod from the CM for the work,” said Batham. “The area was surveyed by a PWD junior engineer and I was informed that the total length would be 12km instead of the sanctioned 8km. But I got it cleared from then PWD minister Shivpal Yadav. In October, I was told that the land belonged to the UP irrigation department, after which permissions were sought from that department to let PWD construct the road. But before I could follow it through, Chauhan has laid the foundation for it on December 29 and taken the credit for it,” she said.

However, Chauhan claimed that he had been pursuing the issue with the Noida Authority and irrigation department officials for the past one year. “I had met the CM and apprised him of the poor state of the road,” Chauhan said.

“I also informed him that people of the 10 nearby villages will support the party which constructs the road and I was given the go-ahead. Since then I worked hard by getting the Noida Authority to release Rs 5.5 crore for it and irrigation department to start construction on it,” he said. “On December 29, I laid the foundation for the four-lane road and it will be completed in six months,” he said. “Vimla Batham is lying,” Chauhan said. “She is clueless about her area and the villagers have boycotted her. She is just trying to take advantage of the project before the elections,” he said.


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