Chhattisgarh elections: Roads a major issue in Raigarh; rain caused problem, says local MLA

Raigarh, Sept 20: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had once made 'beejli, paani and sadak' (power, water and roads) decisive electoral elements. In the early 2000s, it was based on these three factors that the saffron party had wrested power in a number of central and western states in the Assembly elections.

In Chhattisgarh which is being ruled by the BJP since 2003, one of these three factors has drawn more attention ahead of the next Assembly elections scheduled later this year. And it is about the 'sadak' or roads. In the district of Raigarh, roads are a major electoral issue this year and the ruling party might not feel too comfortable over it.

According to a report in Naidunia, two national highways touch Raigarh and work is under progress on both of them. The slowness of the work on NHs besides the state highways and other roads has caused a lot of inconvenience to the common people. The report said that although a lot of work has been done on the state highways and other roads on paper, the actual work on the ground has been very less because of reasons pertaining to tender and work order. The conditions of the roads in the cities are no less bad.

Roads in the city of Raigarh have developed big holes. During the rain, vehicles break down and a couple of times, it even hit the local level crossings, disrupting the movement of trains, the report added.

When Oneindia contacted Roshan Lal, the BJP MLA of Raigarh, he said the road work is going smooth and all the work will be completed by the time of the election. He said whatever problem the region was facing was because of rain but once the monsoon gets over, the roads' health will be fully restored.

He said he has worked for the betterment of the people of Raigarh in the last five years and he is confident of winning the election this year again.

In 2013, Lal defeated the Congress's Shakrajit Naik by a margin of over 20,000 votes in Raigarh constituency.