Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, on Wednesday raised the poor condition of roads built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in his constituency Rae Bareli during a DISHA (District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee) meeting.
Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to Rae Bareli, attended the meeting at the collectorate along with the Congress Amethi MP Kishori Lal Sharma, UP food and civil supplies minister Manoj Kumar Pandey and horticulture minister Dinesh Pratap Singh. A PMGSY executive engineer assured the participants in the meeting that the roads would be repaired. In Harchandpur, a majority of schools are closed. The BJP is spoiling the future of students. UP minister Dinesh Pratap Singh, in a statement, criticised Gandhi’s approach, alleging that he appeared more interested in finding faults in government schemes than in reviewing their implementation. Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to Raebareli, attended the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) meeting at the Collectorate along with the Congress’ Amethi MP Kishori Lal Sharma and other elected representatives and officials to review implementation of Central government schemes. He also stressed that roads constructed by different agencies should be clearly identified and records maintained showing which agency was responsible for each road. After the meeting, Mr. Gandhi left the Collectorate without speaking to reporters.
In his eighth visit to Rae Bareli since being elected to Lok Sabha from the constituency in 2024, Gandhi also handed over two ambulances to the health department, laid the foundation and dedicated development projects worth ₹ 3 crore under MPLADS (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) to the people. This included a ‘baraat ghar’ and a 250 KVA transformer. “This is the last DISHA meeting before the 2027 elections. On roads, Pandey said, “Around 16,000 small and major roads had been constructed in the district over the past five years.
Rajpoot said he came to raise the issues of rampant land grabbing in Rae Bareli and roads under the district panchayat that need repairs. Another minister Manoj Kumar Pandey later told reporters that the meeting covered various central government schemes, including food security. Earlier reporting noted: A nominated member of the DISHA committee, Umesh Bahadur Singh alias Bablu Singh, said, “Gandhi placed photographs of damaged PMGSY roads before the officials and also named specific roads while seeking action. Earlier reporting noted: “The road issue was raised after Gandhi examined the condition of roads in the district and presented photographic evidence during the meeting, rather than merely seeking information from officials,” Mr. Singh said.
Earlier reporting noted: Mr. Today, we came to raise the issue,” Rajpoot said after the police took away his placard and poster.
The Zila Panchayat chairperson keeps silent on this and the BJP ministers come to defend. The zila panchayat chairperson should speak up instead of ministers. We do not want to listen to ministers.”
Asked whether the issue will be raised in the meeting, he said, “We have told Rahul Gandhi about this and will write to him again.
