Corruption-free completion of Purvanchal Expressway troubles Akhilesh: BJP

Rejecting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's allegation of poor quality of work on the Purvanchal Expressway, the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP on Tuesday said he is troubled by the fact that the 341-km road is ready without corruption of even Re 1.

In a tweet in Hindi, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh said, "Akhilesh-ji is feeling troubled over the speed of the double engine government in UP. Akhilesh-ji is thinking how corruption of even one rupee has not been committed and the 341-km Purvanchal Expressway is ready. Had he been in power, he would have constructed a two-lane expressway, while the money meant for the rest of the four lanes would have filled his coffers."

The expressway will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi later on Tuesday.

State BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla said that in December 2016, Yadav as the then chief minister gave a hurried consent to development projects worth Rs 60,000 crore, of which Rs 15,000 crore was meant for the civil construction work of the Purvanchal Expressway.

"However, the government of Yogi Adityanath brought down the cost of the civil construction work to Rs 11,000 crore, thereby saving Rs 4,000 crore. In other words, Akhilesh Yadav was planning to commit a loot of Rs 4,000 crore," he said.

He added that the people of the state want to know how much amount Yadav was planning to loot.

Taking a jibe at the SP chief, UP's Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in a tweet in Hindi on Tuesday said, "Akhilesh Yadav ji, with your arrogant statements, the SP is going to face a 'chaukaa' of (fourth consecutive) electoral defeat in the 2022 UP Assembly polls like the one suffered in 2014 and 2019 (Lok Sabha elections) and 2017 (UP Assembly elections)."

The statements by the BJP leaders came a day after the Samajwadi Party chief charged the BJP government with compromising on the quality of Purvanchal Expressway in a bid to cut down the project cost and inaugurate it before the assembly polls to claim credit.