The J&K government was cornered by the opposition members over the “discrimination” in macadamisation of roads in the state.
The opposition lawmakers were speaking during the discussion on the grants for roads and building (R&B) department in the Legislative Assembly.
Speaking on the grants, NC MLA from Pahalgam referred to the figures mentioned in the replies of the cut motions and revealed that roads in the constituency of opposition members got marginal share during the past years.
“In Anantnag government has macaadamised 84 kilometers in 2017-18, 74.6 km in Bijbehera, 38 km in Kokerna and 29 km in Pahalgam,” Altaf Wani quoted cut motion replies and said Beerwah constituency represented by Omar Abdullah didn’t see any macadamisation of roads from past three years. To this, the minister for parliamentary affairs Abdul Rehman Veeri contested that the figures were not correct. “Roads in my constituency have not been macadamized up to this length in 2017-18,” he said and was countered by Altaf Wani who said the figures have been given by government in reply of cut motions.
In the meantime, leader of the opposition and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told the House that the issue was questionable as the minister from ruling party was contesting the figures.
“If the figures are not correct then on which issue we will talk and believe. Better is that minister should reply on this first,” Omar said, to which R&B minister replied, “My officer says that the figures are based on width of roads.”
In response to this Omar said, “We have learned in school that kilometers are kilometres irrespective of width.”
Meanwhile the House witnessed noisy scenes after opposition members stated R&B department has shown contradictory figures to a same question posed by members.