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At eway opening, PM rakes up CWG scam

GURUGRAM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday made a scathing attack on the previous Congress government over the delayed Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway project, terming it a “case study” of how public money was wasted.

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Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, November 19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday made a scathing attack on the previous Congress government over the delayed Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway project, terming it a “case study” of how public money was wasted.

He said this while inaugurating the 83-km stretch of KMP eway, also known as Western Peripheral Expressway, and the Rs580-crore 3.2-km elevated stretch of the Violet Line of the Delhi Metro through video-conferencing from Sultanpur village in the district.

The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone of Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, which will come up at Dudhola village in Palwal district.

“The expressway was to be used in the Delhi Commonwealth Games (in 2010). But what they (previous regime) did to Commonwealth Games (in an apparent reference to CWG scam), the same story became true for this expressway,” he said.

Modi said atkane aur latkane wali sanskriti (the culture of creating obstacles and delaying works) had made the people of Haryana and Delhi-NCR suffer.

“The expressway project was conceived at an estimated cost of Rs1,200 crore but, due to delay, the cost trebled. It should have been completed and dedicated to people eight to nine years ago, but it did not happen. The way previous regimes functioned, it took 12 years for the expressway to get completed,” the PM said.

After the NDA government came to power in 2014, the Centre and the state government had engaged regularly to ensure the project was completed soon, Modi said.

He further said that during his government, 33,000-km highways had been constructed at a cost of more than Rs3 lakh crore. “The number of highways constructed in the last four years is much more than the number constructed by the previous government in seven-and-a-half years.”

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the Monday’s rally had set the ball rolling for the 2019 General Election. He claimed the BJP would return to power with 350 seats.

Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh urged the PM to start the Lok Sabha campaign from south Haryana as he had fulfilled all promises made to ex-servicemen.


Rally sidelights

  • BJP supporters reached the venue with drums, but ‘show-stoppers’ were from Badshahpur, who came with a DJ playing songs praising their legislator Rao Narbir Singh
  • The supporters of various blocks stuck to dress code with women and men sporting outfits of the same colour 
  • To project BJP’s secular image, a large number of Muslim supporters from Mewat were brought to the rally 
  • Referring to PM Narendra Modi, the crowd raised slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ka Sher’
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