‘Pothole-free Delhi’: Atishi, Ministers inspect roads

New Delhi : Delhi cabinet ministers led by Chief Minister Atishi hit the ground running on Monday morning, inspecting and identifying damaged roads across the city to ensure a pothole-free national capital by Diwali. Atishi, accompanied by Public Works Department (PWD) engineers, visited different areas in south and southeast Delhi. In a post on X, the chief minister said she found roads at NSIC Okhla, Modi Mill flyover, Chirag Dilli, Tughalakabad, Mathura Road, Ashram Chowk and its underpass in a dilapidated condition.

People have to face problems because of potholes on these roads, she said. The chief minister directed the officials to start the repair work on a war footing and said “Under the guidance of Arvind Kejriwal, it is our endeavour that all Delhiites get pothole-free roads by Diwali”. Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia inspected roads in east Delhi. Sisodia, in a post on X, alleged that the BJP sent him and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to jail in fake cases to stall the work being done by the AAP government for the people of Delhi. Because of this, the condition of roads has worsened, he said.

Ministers Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Imran Hussain and Mukesh Ahlawat also inspected roads. Rai inspected roads in northeast Delhi, Gahlot in west and southwest Delhi, Hussain in New Delhi and central Delhi and Ahlawat in north and northwest Delhi. After the inspection, Gahlot posted on X that this morning, along with senior officials of PWD, he inspected the main roads of Najafgarh, Bahadurgarh Road and Dhasan Road.

The BJP on Monday accused the Aam Aadmi Party government of neglecting the city’s roads for the past decade and only waking up to address the issue just 10 weeks before the upcoming assembly election.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva alleged that the Public Works Department (PWD), responsible for maintaining Delhi’s roads, has been under the control of the “most corrupt faces” of the Kejriwal government. “The truth is that four people are primarily responsible for the poor condition of Delhi’s roads: Arvind Kejriwal, Satyendra Jain, Manish Sisodia, and Atishi,” he said. Earlier on September 27, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, after inspecting the roads, handed over a letter to Chief Minister Atishi in the Delhi assembly urging her to start the repair work of Delhi roads on a war footing. Sachdeva said, “AAP who has spent the last ten years destroying roads and neglecting maintenance are now waking up just 10 weeks before the election notification to claim that they will make the roads pothole-free.”