ROAD MAN OR PR MAN ?

ROAD MAN OR PR MAN ?

20-AUG-ENG 14

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA-------------------------People wrote a letter to Nitin Gadkari questiong about his tall claim regarding roads in India. It was said that in his press notes and speeches, India's roads look "like America". Your expressways really shine like a modern postcard as they pass in front of the camera. But the reality is that the glue on the back of many postcards has also peeled off. The roads that millions of people use every day from village to city are full of potholes, as if the government has dug a mine instead of a road.

You set up toll booths everywhere. There are more than 1,040 national highway toll plazas in the country at present and the annual collection figure in 2023-24 had reached above ₹55,000 crores. A person thinks that this time he will get a good road, but as soon as the vehicle crosses the toll, it collides with a pothole. People jokingly say - "In India, toll tax is not taken for road repair, but for the PR of the leaders." And this seems to be most true during your tenure.

Your achievement is counted – “So many kilometres of expressways were built.” But do roads mean only those ribbon-cutting highways, where the minister’s helicopter lands and media cameras flash? Village roads, broken lanes in towns, traffic stuck for hours on state highways – are these not a part of India?

Gadkari ji, a report of your own ministry says that every year about 1.55 to 1.68 lakh people die in road accidents in India. This is the highest in the world. On an average, more than 450 people lose their lives every day. The Supreme Court’s Road Safety Committee has also admitted that potholes and broken roads are the direct cause of thousands of deaths, although government statistics do not record this separately. If your “grand road revolution” had really happened, perhaps this figure would not have been so frightening.

There is a "vision of the future" in your speeches, but on the ground, we see more "accidents of the present". Roads are broken, people die in potholes, truck drivers are tired and the common man is suffering from the rising prices of petrol and diesel. But you post a picture on Twitter - "Car running on the expressway."

You know, the public is now tired of your PR. The public wants roads, not shining pictures. They want safe travel on a daily basis, not the "expressway worth so many crores" statement printed in newspapers.

Gadkari ji, if you are really considered a soldier of India, then your fight should not be with cameras, but with potholes. Otherwise, in the coming years, people will call you "Expressway Minister", but never "Minister of the People".