Says youth are dying daily due to potholed roads
PANAJI
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday launched a protest against poor condition of roads, styling it #BJPCheBurak campaign and alleging that, they have turned death traps due to bad road engineering, corruption, and the BJP’s chronic failure to deliver.
AAP Goa President Amit Palekar, addressing the media at Panaji Party Office, announced a dedicated helpline 7045170451, urging Goans to send images of potholes from their areas which he said will be highlighted on AAP’s social media platforms.
“The BJP government has blood on its hands. Every pothole is a BJP promise, and every fatal accident is their legacy. Young Goans are dying daily because road repair has become nothing more than a money-making scam,” Palekar alleged.
Palekar recalled that this isn’t the first time BJP has fooled Goans with road repair dramas.
He said, first they promised 'Gulf tar' and a November deadline, followed by the much-hyped jetpatcher machine which disappeared faster than former PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral.
"To top it off, they launched a fancy pothole app that was as useful as their governance. Now, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant wears the PWD crown himself, yet Goa’s roads remain broken, deadly, and embarrassing for a tourism State," Palekar said.
AAP's Valmiki Naik ridiculed the government’s priorities saying instead of fixing roads, the BJP is focusing on PR campaigns and organising big events.
He said, Sawant himself admitted in the recent assembly session that two Goans die every day in road accidents, half of them because of bad roads and signals.
"If knowingly letting people die isn’t criminal negligence, what is?,” Naik questioned.
AAP Vice President Roque Mascarenhas called out the insensitivity of the ruling party saying the State has become a graveyard for its youth.
"Families are losing their children every day. This is the true face of their double-engine sarkar," Mascarenhas said.
Another AAP leader Shrikrishna Parab said the people of Goa deserve much better than a government which cannot even ensure safe roads.
“Through #BJPCheBurak, we will expose every pothole, every neglected stretch, and every avoidable death. Goans deserve dignity, safety, and good governance not 'buraks' and BJP’s empty promises,” Parab said, adding that over the last two weeks, AAP has been raising the issue of bad road infrastructure.
He claimed that the campaign has led to the BJP government rushing to take up repairs.