Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann skips Nitin Gadkari’s event; stones for Rs 4K-cr highways laid

Tribune News Service

Deepkamal Kaur

Hoshiarpur, January 10

As Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari laid stones for 29 national highways in Punjab at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore today, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann chose to give the event a miss.

Several leaders from the Aam Aadmi Party, including Rajya Sabha MPs Balbir Singh Seechewal and Ashok Mittal, and Sham Chaurasi MLA Dr Ravjot Singh had already reached the venue. Chairs had been laid down on the stage for all leaders, including the CM and Punjab PWD Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO. His public relations team too had arrived from Chandigarh, but just on the brink of time, a message was received that the CM was not coming. All stones that Gadkari laid digitally had the name of CM Mann, besides his own name.

The report of the CM skipping the event annoyed BJP leaders at the venue. BJP state chief Sunil Jakhar took up the issue in his speech as he said, “When Union ministers like Nitin Gadkari welcome leaders from all parties to their Delhi offices with their respective demands for their areas, it is not wise on the part of these leaders to give the event a miss, especially when Gadkari had come down to Punjab to announce a slew of projects.”

Later, he told The Tribune that it would have only added to the grace of the function if the CM had welcomed him in the state today. “Why did all AAP leaders, who had already come, leave the venue when they heard that the CM was not coming? Even if bad weather was a reason for the CM’s chopper not flying today, he would have already known that. Foggy weather is persisting for the past over 10 days and choppers are not flying,” he said.

Interestingly, not just AAP, even Congress MPs, including Manish Tewari and Ravneet Bittu, had the invites as projects related to their areas were also to be announced, but they did not come. Tewari said, “In 2019, Gadkari laid the stone for the Banga-Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi road, but no headway was made. I met him along with Capt Amarinder Singh and then PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla, but I was told that the stone had been laid on the insistence of my predecessor. This had left a bitter taste in my mouth and hence I did not go today despite an invitation.”

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