Akhilesh Yadav attacks BJP on expressway inauguration

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, on Saturday, mounted a scathing attack on the BJP and accused it of “re-inaugurating” projects that had been initiated by his government.

“The BJP is removing the ‘Samajwadi’ word from the projects and claiming them as their own”, he said.

Addressing a press conference hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Purvanchal Expressway in Azamgarh, Mr Akhilesh Yadav said the Yogi Adityanath government was concealing the truth about the Expressway. “The BJP is saying that it has reduced the cost of the Purvanchal Expressway but the fact is that it has reduced the width of the Expressway from the proposed eight-lanes to six lanes. The government has also done away with public utilities and lighting on the expressway to reduce the costy,” he said.

“We had planned to include Varanasi, Ayodhya and Gorakhpur in the Expressway route but these cities have now been excluded. The Prime Minister has obviously not been informed of these facts”, he said.

It may be recalled that the state government had claimed to have reduced the cost of the Expressway by 10 per cent. Mr Akhilesh Yadav further said that the Yogi government was trying to claim the credit for projects that had been started by his government.

“They are simply giving a saffron hue to our projects. The Samsung project in Noida was also brought in by our government but the government claims it is its own achievement”, he pointed out.

The SP president said that in the four years of Modi government and one year of Yogi government, there was not a single achievement which could be termed as that of the BJP. “These governments are living on borrowed glory”, he added.

Mr Yadav also slammed the state government for its failure to control the law and order situation.