How about a mango tree in middle of an NH!
LAKHIMPURKHERI: Samajwadi Party MLC Shashank Yadav’s swipe at the state government through a Facebook post attaching the picture of a huge mango tree standing in the middle of a national highway has triggered a blame game between the officials concerned. In a satirical post, Yadav said: “Vikas paida hua magar NH24 par Maigalganj ke paas (development has taken birth but on NH24 near Maigalganj).”
Yadav said he posted the comment to highlight the negligence of construction officials as well as local representatives. The officials of Era Infra Engineering Ltd, the company which was assigned the construction work of 157km-long stretch between Sitapur and Bareilly on NH 24, blamed the forest department officials for not giving permission for removing the tree.
However, the forest officials said they did not receive any letter to seek permission.
Talking to HT, Yadav said: “While passing by the national highway, I was surprised to find a huge mango tree right in the middle of the road. This is a serious threat to people travelling during the night.” “All MPs and MLAs of the region belong to the ruling party but none of them came to know about it. This indicates lack of coordination between the authorities concerned,” he said. Meanwhile, project in-charge of Era Infra Engineering Ltd Arun Chaudhary said, “The project was assigned to us in 2010-11. We sent letters to forest department seeking permission to remove the trees coming in the way of the proposed highway. We did not receive any permission or reply from the authorities concerned. Due to this, 22 per cent of the project is still pending.”
“We have neither completed the work there nor permitted traffic on the route as yet.”
He said the portion of the road, which had the mango tree, fell under the jurisdiction of Hardoi administration.
DFO, South Kheri, Sameer Verma claimed he did not receive any letter from the construction company seeking permission to cut trees.
DEOKANT PANDEY