Friday, 27 May 2022 | PNS | Haldwani
Expressing his frustration at the snail’s pace of work on construction of national highway number 109, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat staged a brief protest by sitting near a pothole on the road near Motuhaldu on Thursday. Sharing a video on the social media, the veteran politician expressed concern at the slow pace of work by the State government, stating that the condition of most of the roads in the State is deplorable. While being drive on Bareilly Road, the former chief minister was unable to hold back and vented his frustration at the state of affairs. He demanded that the National Highways Authority of India should repair this road immediately. He said that if this road is not repaired soon, he will sit on a protest demonstration along with former MLA Harish Durgapal. In the 2022 Assembly elections, when Rawat was contesting as the Congress candidate from Lalkuan Assembly constituency, he had staged a protest in the middle of the road against the condition of this road. At that time, the NHAI had filled a few potholes and talked of starting work on the road. However, the pace of the construction work had soon slowed down. The locals also point out that with the monsoon season not far away, the risk of mishaps on this pothole riddled road become higher. Considering this, the work on the national highway should be expedited, they state.
It is pertinent to mention here that apart from interacting with locals and raising issues of Lalkuan constituency where he lost the latest Assembly election, Rawat is also doing his bit to dent the State government’s claims at a time when chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the Bharatiya Janata Party are doing their best to woo the voters for the Champawat Assembly by-election.
