Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya said Increasing road accidents in Uttarakhand are becoming a matter of concern. The Leader of Opposition expressed these views in front of the media after visiting the spot and seeing the situation after the sudden death of 8 people and injuries to some people due to the accident of a taxi vehicle on Adhaura-Midaar motor road of Okhalkanda development block in Nainital. He said that this accident is not the first accident on this motorway, people have already lost their lives in previous accidents.
The Leader of Opposition said that the condition of all the roads in the state is the same in terms of accidents. He said that according to the latest report of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and State Highways, on an average three people of the state are losing their lives in road accidents every day. The Leader of Opposition said that the road accident figures of the last few years are very worrying. He said that according to these figures, there were 1352 road accidents in the year 2019 in which 867 people died and 1457 people were injured. In the year 2020, 674 people died and 854 were injured in 1041 accidents, in the year 2021, 820 people died and 1091 people were injured in 1405 accidents in Uttarakhand. Overall, 3403 people have lost their lives in road accidents in the state in the last four years. The Leader of Opposition said that according to the report, bad roads are the cause of road accidents. He said that due to the poor condition of roads in Uttarakhand, not only the common people are facing problems every day but they are also losing their lives. He said that the reason behind the bad condition of roads is the corruption that has reached its peak in the state. He made it clear that the ruling party and officials have considered the road construction sector in the state as a milch cow. Commission embezzlement is at its peak in these departments, hence the money for road construction is going into the pockets of ruling party leaders and officials.
The Leader of Opposition said that the Chief Minister, the government and the administration may make lakhs of claims of making the roads of the state pothole free, but the public is seeing the truth with their own eyes. He said that instead of becoming pothole free, the roads of Uttarakhand are becoming pothole filled and day by day traveling on the roads of the state is proving to be risky for the common citizens. The Leader of Opposition said that the condition of the roads has deteriorated so much that now the general public is afraid to travel by road.
Arya alleged that BJP may gain power in the elections by promising a double engine, but in reality even the single engine of development is not working in Uttarakhand. The Leader of Opposition said that the public is seeing that the government is not able to fill the potholes on the roads and even cut the bushes on the roadside.
He said that due to bad roads, time, money and resources of common citizens are constantly being wasted. The train which was supposed to run for five years is getting destroyed in two years and the journey which was supposed to be completed in one hour is taking three hours each. And for the journey for which one liter of fuel has to be burnt, three liters of fuel is being burnt out of compulsion.
The Leader of Opposition said that bad roads, happy government, careless system, fun of bureaucracy and death of people have become the reality of Uttarakhand. The question is, who is responsible for the deaths due to accidents in the state – bad roads, inactive government or careless officials?
