New Delhi: BJP on Tuesday alleged that Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh had completely ignored critical gaps
in crucial areas like the power sector and development of
highways in his press conference.
"Proper growth of infrastructure sector is critical for
development and it is indeed surprising that the Prime
Minister in his press conference yesterday was conspicuously
silent or, evasive on critical issues relating to this
sector," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
He emphasised on the power sector, saying it was in a
"real mess".
"The generation is going down and in adjoining Gurgaon in
and around the millennium city which houses the office of so
many MNCs there is power cut for 10-12 hours every day and
that too hardly 10-15 km away from Delhi," he said.
Prasad accused the UPA government of ignoring the national
highways project in both terms. In UPA-I the National Highways
Authority of India project suffered due to "nepotism and
corruption" of the then minister T R Baalu.
The present incumbent Kamal Nath had "boastfully" declared
but failed to keep his word that 20 km of road would be
constructed per day. "The target was rarely completed and the
old style of interference, ad-hoc decisions, not always on
transparent considerations came to the fore," Prasad said.
He said the Planning Commission has revised the target
from 20 km per day to mere 6 km per day.
The agriculture sector, Prasad insisted, is set to show a
negative growth of minus 2 per cent.
The government appeared confused about the number of BPL
families in the country and did not know which data to believe
in, Prasad said.
He alleged that Air India was also in a mess with losses
running up to Rs 7,200 crore which were likely to jump to Rs
10,000 crore by next year.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, May 25, 2010, 23:08