A video of an Uttar Pradesh MLA confronting a road contractor over the poor quality of freshly laid road in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district has gone viral. Bedi Ram, a Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party leader, could be seen miffed at the contractor as tar peeled off when he scrapped a portion of the road with his shoes.
Ram can be heard saying, “Is this road? Can a car run on this road? Is it some kind of joke?". The contractor had taken the contract of laying fresh road on the 4.5-kilometre stretch connecting Jangipur-Bahariyabad-Yusufpur in Jakhanian area of Ghazipur district.
The MLA after receiving complaints about the poor construction quality of the road in Jakhanian, Ghazipur assembly constituency, decided to visit and inspect the quality of the road.
"There was no official of PWD (Public Works Department) there. I raised the issue with the contractor about this and talked to the higher officials of PWD. The road was not being built according to the standard and the construction was being done in such a way that it would not last even for a year or even six months," said the MLA, according to NDTV.
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According to local media reports, the road was constructed by the Public Works Department five days ago.
A similar video had surfaced last month from Pilibhit in which one could see some people peel off the surface layer of a recently laid road with their bare hands. Locals said the road tender was approved by the Public Works Department’s construction division only a month ago.
The estimated cost of the road's construction was Rs 3.8 crore, according to media reports.