GUWAHATI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, on Monday (August 14), launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led Modi government at the Centre over ‘corruption’ allegations.
Kharge accused the Modi government of ‘corruption’ in infrastructure projects across the country, which he said “taking the nation on a highway to hell”.
He made this statement while citing a report of the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of India on the Bharatmala Pariyojana highway projects.
“BJP’s corruption and loot is taking the nation on a highway to hell,” Kharge said while citing the CAG report.
He added: “CAG has pointed that Bharatmala Pariyojana is being built with – innumerable deficiencies, non-compliance of outcome parameters, clear violation of tender bidding process and huge funding mismanagement.”
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The Congress chief cited the Dwarka Expressway project as a stark example of the ‘fraud’ in the Bharatmala Pariyojana scheme.
“Cost of this project was originally estimated at Rs 528.8 crore, but later zoomed to Rs 7287.2 crore — a whopping 1278% increase,” he said.
He added: “Dwarka Expressway was appraised and approved without any detailed project report. The planned toll rates shall hinder the recovery of capital cost of the project and result in undue financial burden on commuters. Lane configurations of Dwarka-Expressway were determined without analysing the development of nearby competing infrastructure. Construction was done with suboptimal specifications.”
The Congress chief further warned the Modi government of being held accountable by the INDIA bloc, if it comes to power in 2024.
“You (PM Narendra Modi) need to look within, before you harp about Corruption against your opponents, because you are overseeing it yourself. In 2024, INDIA will make your government accountable,” Kharge said.