‘Govt responsible for bad condition of roads’

BJP says no lessons learnt from accidents

NEW DELHI, 08/05/2017: Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta at Vidhan Sabha in New Delhi on Monday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The Leader of Opposition, Vijender Gupta, on Saturday alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led government was fully responsible for the “bad condition” of the Capital's roads and needed to take immediate steps to improve their condition.

Condoling the death of Jagdish Sukhija — a resident of Rohini who lost his life on Friday in a road accident in the Civil Lines area due to a porthole — Mr. Gupta criticised the Delhi government over the condition of roads in Delhi and argued that such casualties were taking place as “a matter of routine”.

Demand for relief

“Over 50 people died last year due to such fatal accidents. It is, however, unfortunate that the government has not learnt any lesson from such accidents. I demand a compensation of ₹50 lakh for the family of late Mr. Sukhija who lost his life due to the negligence of the Delhi government,” the LOP said.

Alleging that no attention was paid to regular maintenance once roads were constructed, the LOP argued that Mr. Sukhija's life could have been saved had the government taken “timely action” in relation to the repair of the said porthole near Metcalfe House. The LOP quoted a similar incident in which a 45-year-old biker lost his life in Vasant Kunj in July. In another accident the driver of a two-wheeler lost his life due to a water-logged porthole in Kanjhawala in August.

High-level inquiry

“I demand a high-level enquiry into the death of Mr. Sukhija and to take strict action against those found guilty. Last year, in May, a seven-year-old boy had died after falling in a nallah along the road in Rani Bagh,” Mr. Gupta said.

“The major reasons for such accidents are the use of low quality material for construction, faulty road engineering and design, non-repair of portholes in time, failure to re-carpet roads in time and incorrect design of speed breakers,” he said further.

The LOP demanded that the Delhi government conduct a thorough survey of all roads, open drains and open manholes to find out shortcomings and urgent action be taken to remove them so that “such accidents could be curbed and precious lives saved.”