Ex-MLA Ranjit Dhillon goes live on Facebook to take on Ravneet Bittu over flyover completion

LUDHIANA: Going live on Facebook on Tuesday, former SAD MLA and district president Ranjit Singh Dhillon took on Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu on his recent dharna at Ladhowal toll barrier in which the latter had demanded completion of pending work on three flyovers on the national highway. The protest had ended when construction was started again at Basti Jodhewal chowk.

Now, Dhillon has demanded that the construction work should be stopped for two months and when the new government at Centre would come in power the project should be considered once again. While talking to FB users, he further said from this chowk traffic goes towards Doaba region while taking Rahon road and then Mattewara flyover for reaching Nawashahr.

He said many people used this route and after the protest of Bittu, the company started the work on the flyover in haste and now, the bridge would be constructed only on a 30m span, which was not sufficient. Taking a dig at Bittu, Dhillon said, “Bittu is not aware, perhaps as to why work was stopped here. It is because we had demanded that there should be a 90m span bridge at this point and for that we had even met Union minister Nitin Gadkari as well.” The project has been lying pending for a long time but Bittu was unaware of the ground reality, he added.

He said it would not solve any problem of traffic as the single span could not take load of traffic entering the city. If this work is not stopped right now, it will only create a problem than finding any solution,” Dhillon said in his live session.

“It seems Bittu, who is an outsider and has no knowledge about the geography of the city, hastily organised a dharna at the toll barrier on March 8 and then on March 9, he lifted the dharna on the promise by the company that pending work of the flyover would be started at Basti Jodhewal,” Dhillon alleged. “The contractor has started the work on a single span flyover, which is also beneficial for him as single span will cost less than the triple span flyover. Bittu befooled Ludhiana residents and indirectly benefited the contractor,” he added.

Dhillon further said he even consulted some traffic experts, senior traffic officials and even met the DC on the issue, and everyone agreed to his point that a single span flyover was not the a solution but would lead to more problems. He asked people to join him and he would meet DC Pardeep Agrawal on this issue.

On the other hand, MP Ravneet Bittu said, “It is really sad on the part of SAD leaders if they are saying all such things. They still have Gadkari at the Centre and if they are not satisfied with the ongoing work they should ask him to stop the work.” He said they remained in power for the past five years and could not complete the work and now when he got it started, they wanted to stop it. Bittu said he remained MP for five years in Ludhiana, so how he could be an outsider.

Dhillon however neither confirmed nor denied over the possibility of him being declared the party candidate against Bittu, who is expected to be the Congress MP candidate from Ludhiana.

Responding to the query whether he would be contesting LS polls from industrial town Dhillon said, "Party will decide who will contest elections and in one or two days everything would become clear. I am doing all this just because I am district SAD president and these issues need to be taken up."