MP’s roads better than Washington DC? Twitter shows Shivraj Singh Chouhan the mirror

Madhya Pradesh’s Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said that roads in his home state of Madhya Pradesh were better than those in Washington DC, the US Capital. The CM is on a visit to the the US to attract investors for infrastructure projects back home.

“When I got down at Washington Airport & travelled on roads, I felt roads in MP are better than the US,” Chouhan was quoted as saying by ANI on Tuesday.

The CM reportedly went on, “I am not saying it just for the sake of it.”

Chouhan’s statement was ridiculed on Twitter, with users on the social media platform sharing news reports highlighting notorious condition of the state’s roads in the wake of his statement being reported in the media.

A Twitter user pointed towards a news report from July this year, which had said that 29 accidents occurred due to potholes on MP’s roads each year.

The picture of Chouhan being carried by cops also started to go viral after he made the remarks in the US.

With a total length of 6.58 million square kilometres, the United States has the world’s longest and the biggest road network. The country’s expressways feature among the best in the world

The roads in Madhya Pradesh, on the other hand, have come under criticism time and again. In February this year, veteran actor Rishi Kapoor made his displeasure about the state roads’ public after getting held up by traffic on the Bhopal-Nagpur road.

“At a time when excellent roads are being constructed everywhere in India, highways and four-laneways are being developed, why such roads are not being constructed here (in Madhya Pradesh),” Kapoor had said at the time.

“This road which connects Bhopal to Nagpur is full of narrow lanes. I will request your (of Madhya Pradesh) Chief Minister to improve the roads in the state,” he had appealed.

Previously, actress and politician Hema Malini, who is an MP from Chouhan’s party, had also complained about MP’s roads, according to news reports.