LUCKNOW: With a number of schemes of the previous Samajwadi Party government already under the scanner of the present BJP government, the state urban development ministry has decided to do away with the cycle tracks built along the arterial roads in many big cities including Lucknow, Noida, Bareilly and many towns across Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, the government had changed the names of a number of schemes launched in the previous regime by replacing the word ‘Samajwadi’ by either ‘Mukhyamantri’ or ‘Pradhanmantri’. The cycle tracks project was launched last year and completed on war footing just ahead of the announcement of state elections.
“We have ordered the municipal corporations and municipalities to demolish the cycle tracks as they do not serve their purpose and are rather leading to traffic congestion,” said cabinet minister for urban
development Suresh Khanna. Confirming that the demolition drive would begin from Bareilly in view of the large number of complaints by residents there that the tracks were causing traffic jams, Khanna said the project was conceptualized and implemented by the previous government to promote the Samajwadi Party symbol ’cycle’.
Also, the small pillars which demarcate the cycle tracks in the cities are painted in red and green — the SP colours — leading political adversaries to draw the obvious conclusion that it was a covert bid to publicise the party symbol and colours at the expense of the public exchequer.
“The tracks had come up just to promote the ‘cycle’ symbol by the SP as it is their party symbol. Now they are lying unused, encroached upon by street vendors or being used as parking area for auto-rickshaws and two wheelers,” the minister said.
However, the minister remained non-committal on the demolition drive in Lucknow and Noida where over 100 km of tracks were built. Akhilesh had gone a step further by launching the first 207-km long cycle highway from Etawah, his native district, to Agra.
A number of projects of the SP regime including the Gomti Riverfront, Jai Prakash Narain International Centre, Samajwadi Pension scheme, Airech Dam in Bundelkhand and operations of Waqf boards have been on BJP government’s radar and probe has been ordered into them following alleged financial irregularities.
History-sheets of SP MLA, son destroyed?
A probe has been ordered into a complaint by a constable that the history-sheets of SP MLA Hariom Yadav and son Vijay Pratap were allegedly destroyed in Shikohabad Police Station.