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Modi inaugurated project that was approved by UPA-II, says Congress’ Soz

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Says inauguration of Zojila Tunnel is good measure

Srinagar: Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader, Prof. Safiuddin Soz on Saturday said that the project that was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was approved by the by UPA II.

Soz said, “PM Modi’s inauguration of ZojilaTunnel is a good measure and it is good news for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially for the people of Leh and Kargil regions. But, at the same time, it is an occasion to remind the people that the project was approved by UPA-II through a cabinet decision on 14th September, 2012.”

Earlier, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways C.P. Joshi had taken a meeting on 28th March, 2012 in which I was also present, apart from Lt. Gen. S. Ravi Shankar, VSM, DBGR, BRO, J.N. Singh, Member (Finance), NHAI, Vinod Kumar, DDG, BRO, Chaman Lal, Chief Engineer (P-I), Sanjeev Kumar, SE (P-I), Col. K.S. Malladi, Director B&T, DGBR and A.K. Gupta, Director Contract, he said.

“In the said meeting, it was decided that the BRO would provide the total Project cost for Zojila and Z-Morh tunnels before 31st March, 2012 and, to the best of my knowledge, all formalities were completed within that time frame and the cabinet approved the project on September 14, 2012,” Soz added.

“All this was happening because of personal interest in the project taken by Rahul Gandhi. The cabinet had approved an expenditure of Rs. 9000/- crores for Zojila and Rs. 3000/- crores for Z-Morh Tunnel,” he said, adding that it was Rahul Gandhi who inaugurated Z- Morh Tunnel on October 4, 2012. I was one of a dozen National and State public figures present on that occasion.

“It was a normal practice those days for the incumbent Government to make a reference to what had been envisaged and approved by the predecessor Govt. Now, the practice is different as the hype is that nothing worth mention has been done in the past, since Independence,” he said.

 

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