Shivraj Singh Chouhan: Roads in?Madhya Pradesh better than United States

The roads inMadhya Pradesh(MP) are better than the United States, Chief MinisterShivraj Singh Chouhansaid in Washington on Tuesday.

Addressing the US-IndiaStrategic Partnership Forum meeting, Chouhan said, "When I got down at theWashingtonAirport and travelled on roads, I felt the roads inMadhya Pradeshare better than the United States."

"Few years back, MP was termed as a diseased state, but when I became the chief ministerthen it was in my mind that without basic infrastructure no state can develop. Our first focus was on building the roads. Today, we have constructed around 1.75 lakh kilometre roads in the state and all the villages have been well-connected with roads," Chouhan said in the meeting.

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But locals do not agree with Chouhan's statement and find it baseless and untrue.

Iqbal Ansari, a resident of Bhopal,saidthat the CM is probably unaware of the reality since he often travels in helicopters. He further adds, "Once the CM takes a tour of the National Highway Road in Raisen district, then he will know the actuality. People find his statement baseless and untrue."

He further stated thatBJP has been in the state for 13 years and but the repair work on roads between Bhopal and Raisen still remains unattended. National Highway 12, which connects Jaipur to Jabalpurand passes through Bhopal,is known to be in worse shape, Ansariadded.

Ansari also saidthat during the last 12 years, only a minor amount of work has been put in, but travelling on these routes is still time consuming.Today, the time taken to travel 45 km distance between Raisen and Bhopal, which would be completed in 45 to 60 minutes, now takes upto 2 hours.

People are unaware of which roads Chouhan was talking about whenhe made the statement, Ansari said.

His government has oftencriticised for the unruly roads in the state capital as well as in other parts of the state.

(With inputs from ANI)