Delhi minister Kailash Gehlot inspects roads in Najafgarh, assures quick repair
New Delhi: Delhi Minister Kailash Gehlot inspected the condition of the roads in South West Delhi's Najafgarh area on Monday as part of the Delhi government's road assessment and repair plan.
Speaking to reporters after inspection, Minister Gehlot attributed the bad condition of the roads to unusually long monsoon this year and assured quick repair.
"The condition of the roads is very bad. Inspection is going on in all roads today. One more reason is that the monsoons were quite long. We, along with the PWD workers, will try our best to repair the roads as soon as possible. If the road is bad, then a lot of commuters face problems. Our former Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, also inspected the roads along with the current CM. He too believes that the people of Delhi must not face any kind of problem," he said.
Minister Gehlot said that he is scheduled to meet the Public Works Department (PWD) regarding the concerns raised by the residents.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, Ministers Saurabh Bhardwaj, Gopal Rai and former Delhi Deputy CM and AAP MLA Manish Sisodia inspected the condition of roads in several parts of the national capital.
As part of the government's road assessment and repair plan, all ministers have been assigned responsibility for different road areas in the city.
CM Atishi will oversee South and South East Delhi; Saurabh Bharadwaj is in charge of East Delhi; Gopal Rai will review North East Delhi; Imran Hussain will take stock of Central and New Delhi, Kailash Gehlot is responsible for South West Delhi and Outer Delhi; and Mukesh Shehrawat will oversee North West Delhi.
Former CM Kejriwal also accompanied Atishi during her inspection and urged to prepare a report of the condition of all the roads under the PWD. The AAP supremo also handed over a letter to Atishi in the state assembly urging immediate repair of the damaged roads.
Speaking to reporters after inspection at the Okhla area, CM Atishi vowed to restore all roads within the next three to four months.
"For two days, Arvind Kejriwal and I inspected the roads of Delhi and found that the condition of roads is very bad. Arvind Kejriwal has given a call to all the party MLAs and ministers to work towards restoring the roads of Delhi at the earliest. Every inch of the 1400 km stretched PWD roads will be inspected. In the next three to four months, all roads will be restored. We will try to give pothole-free roads to the people of Delhi by Diwali. The opposition did everything it could to stop us from working. Now that Arvind Kejriwal is out of jail, we will work under his guidance," CM Atishi said.
BJP leader Harish Khurrana dubbed the inspection drive "nothing but a makeover" by the AAP to get rid of the corruption allegations.
"AAP leaders, be it Arvind Kejriwal or Atishi, either think that Delhiites are fools or they think that they don't know what is happening. This is an image makeover effort to get rid of the corruption charges. But in the process, they are exposing themselves. Arvind Kejriwal is saying that he is ordering Atishi to make the roads pothole-free and repair the roads, but he forgets to mention that when he was in jail, all work in Delhi had stopped. The people of Delhi understand everything. Delhi is completely ruined, development work in Delhi has been stalled for the last 9.5 years. Certainly, the people of Delhi have made up their minds that the next government that will be formed will be of the Bharatiya Janata Party," Khurrana said.