U.P. ministers constructs road

Cabinet minister and Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar along with his supporters constructed a road in his village near Varanasi on Saturday. 

The minister, a compulsive dissident in the Yogi government, resorted to the extreme step maintaining that despite repeated requests, the Public Works Department (PWD) refused to construct the road.

Rajbhar said that he was forced to work as a labour for the construction of the 500-metre road as the marriage of his son was solemnised on Thursday and many VIP guests including several ministers were likely to attend the reception on Saturday. 

The video of Rajbhar digging the road with spade on Saturday went viral on social media.  The minister along with his two sons and other workers constructed the half a kilometer road in front of his house connecting the main road.

On Saturday, several senior politicians of Centre and UP were likely to visit Fatehpur Khauda village of Rajbhar in Varanasi to attend the marriage reception of his elder son Arvind Rajbhar. 

Rajbhar told newspersons that it pointed towards the state of affairs in UP. “Even a cabinet minister cannot get a road near his house constructed, then  one can imagine the state of affairs prevailing in the state,’’ said he.  

The minister said that he had been requesting the Executive Engineer of PWD for the last six months for construction of road but to no avail.

He also furnished a letter dated May 30, where the Executive Engineer of PWD (Varanasi region) Pankaj Bakaya asked officials to construct the 500 meter road near the minister’s house with an estimated cost of Rs 16.77 lakh. Rajbhar said that even after the order, the road was not built forcing them to do it themselves.