MP roads better than US, says Shivraj Singh Chouhan, draws flak

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s comment that “Roads in MP are better than those of US” on Wednesday provoked avalance of sarcasm from several quarters including the social media.

Opposition Congress took a jibe at him for “daring” to compare the roads of MP and USA, describing it a “height of misrepresentation of facts”, even as flurry of sarcastic comments along with photoshopped pictures swapping the roads of MP with those of USA erupted in social media network sites, Twitter and Facebook.

“The infamous potholed roads of MP have been taken note of even by the Bollywood actors such as Rishi Kapoor and Raveena Tondon”, Congress spokesman here Pankaj Chaturvedy observed, adding, “MP has earned a bad name outside the state for its bad roads”.

Hindi film actor Rishi Kapoor during his recent visit to MP had narrated his “back breaking journey” on the bumpy road from Bhopal to famous Khajurao temple and vowed to take it to the chief minister’s notice.

Raveena Tondon had also similar “painful” road journey during his visit to MP a few years ago.

Mr Chouhan made the observation at the US-India strategic partnership forum meeting in Washington DC on Tuesday. He was currently on a 6-day tour to US to woo investments to MP.

“Somebody should take the blindfold out of Mr Chouhan’s eyes”, Guna MP and senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia tweeted his reaction to Mr Chouhan’s comment on MP roads.

MP PWD minister Ram Pal Singh however defended the chief minister saying that the road conditions in the state have improved considerably in the past 14 years after Mr Chouhan became the chief minister. Incidentally, Mr Singh held a high level official meeting here on Wednesday where a decision has been taken to improve conditions of 12,000 km roads in the state at a cost of Rs 13,000 crore.