Gadarpur MLA withdraws hunger strike

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 18

The BJP MLA from Gadarpur Arvind Pandey continued with his indefinite hunger stir on the second day, but later in the evening withdrew it. The MLA who had positioned himself with his supporters outside the state government secretariat declined to take water on the second day today.

Yesterday, Secretary, PWD, Amit Negi, had met the MLA and had agreed in principle to speed up the Gadarpur-Dineshpur road repair. So far no political leader or minister from the ruling Congress has tried to meet the agitating MLA. “My people are suffering. Till today 41 deaths have occurred on the road which has been in a state of disrepair since the last three years,” said Pandey.

He said that he felt ashamed to meet the residents of his constituency as they keep requesting him to get the road repair done as early as possible. “A total of Rs 25 lakh was sanctioned for the repair of the road, but due to political pressure the amount was diverted for a tourism project in Haldwani,” charged the MLA.

Later, another team of officials met the MLA and gave him an undertaking that the road would be repaired within 30 days after which the MLA withdrew his hunger stir.

Meanwhile, today morning, protesting against the delay in repair and construction of the Delhi-Dehradun highway and Khatima-Panipat highway, the BJP MLA Pushkar Dhami from Khatima too started a sit-in at Yamuna Colony, where most ministers reside. Later in the afternoon, the MLA withdrew the sit-in after the officials from the National Highway assured him of speedy work. “The four lanes on the highway are being built at a snail’s pace. The road has been dug at various places, which makes driving difficult,” said Dhami. He also submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Uttarakhand Dr Aziz Qureshi bemoaning the slow pace of work on national highways.