Bikram Majithia seeks vigilance probe in road construction

Amritsar, January 25

Former minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia today demanded a vigilance probe into the substandard partial repair work done on the Majitha-Fatehgarh road whose foundation stone was laid by Public Works Minister Harbhajan Singh in November last year.

Bikram Majithia, who visited Ruri village where the foundation stone was laid by the minister on November 14, 2023, also interacted with people, who said the road was in a worse condition than earlier because only partial work had been done while digging on the road leading to accidents and even a recent death.

The SAD leader said wherever work had been done it was falling apart due to use of substandard material and demanded a vigilance probe into the entire contract. He said the work was started on the link road which connected Dera Baba Nanak with Amritsar after SAD legislator Ganieve Kaur Majitha raised this issue in the Vidhan Sabha but instead of bringing relief to the area it was causing even more suffering to the people. He demanded comprehensive up-gradation of the road saying the sham exercise in the name of repair was unacceptable to the people.

SAD Legislator Ganieve Kaur Majithia had earlier taken up the issue in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha while detailing how the road, which was repaired and widened during the time of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government in 2013, had virtually turned into a death trap. She had also highlighted the fact that the road was not repaired in 2018-19 as scheduled and was not being repaired with state funds by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. Ganieve Majithia had demanded that the road be repaired from state funds, as was done by the SAD government earlier at a cost of Rs 80 crore.

The SAD legislator claimed that Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had released funds for the repair of the road under the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF). SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had taken up the issue of road with Nitin Gadkari.