Much to everyone’s surprise and embarrassment, the road broke and the gravel came off, but the coconut remained intact.
Bijnor: In an embarrassing incident, a portion of a newly-constructed road in Uttar Pradesh (UP)’s Bijnor cracked open, when a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA smashed a coconut on it to mark its inauguration. The incident happened on Friday, 3 December, when MLA Suchi Chaudhary slammed the coconut on a stretch of the 7-km road near Kheda village. Much to everyone’s surprise and embarrassment, the road broke and the gravel came off, but the coconut remained intact.
When the MLA’s husband Mausam Chaudhary, who was also there on the spot, used a shovel on the newly constructed road, the surface started disintegrating. Upset over the incident, Suchi Chaudhary sat on a dharna and scolded officials over the poor quality of the road. Left red-faced, she accused employees of using substandard material in the construction.
The MLA ended her protest only after the district magistrate ordered an inquiry into the construction of the stretch. As per NDTV, Chaudhary was also seen helping the officials dig a wider hole in the location to collect samples of the asphalt.
“I spoke to the district magistrate about that. I told him that the road was not up to the standards. The DM formed a three-member team, which was sent to the site. They collected material from there, which was sent for sampling. We stayed there for almost three hours until this was done,” Chaudhary told reporters.
Meanwhile, executive engineer at the Irrigation Division Vikas Aggarwal denied any corruption, and said that a sample has been taken for analysis. According to a PTI report, a total of Rs 1,16,00,000 was spent on the construction of the road.
