As People Die Without Oxygen, Work At 'Essential Service' Central Vista Continues In Full Swing

There is a raging pandemic in the country that is infecting over four lakh people and killing nearly 4 thousand every day.

There is an acute shortage of hospital beds, ICUs and medical oxygen in India.

Millions have been left without a job or income due to the lockdowns and lives have come to a standstill.

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But there is one thing that has not been affected by all these catastrophes happening in the country - the redevelopment of the Central Vista.

Declared as 'essential service', by which the construction of it was exempted from the lockdown, the 20,000 crore project in the national capital is slowly taking shape.

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Roads dug up

Over the past few weeks, sides of the roads leading to Rajpath have been dug up as part of the massive construction works.

The Central government wants the Prime Minister¡¯s new residence, which is being built as part of the Central Vista redevelopment project will be ready by December 2022.

The government is adamant about going ahead with the construction activities even during such chaotic times, but the opposition is growing.

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Questionable timing

Many have questioned the timing of the project and said that the money could have been used to build hospitals or oxygen plants.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the central government for going ahead with the central vista project, saying the government should put people's lives at the centre amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

"Central Vista is criminal wastage. Put people's lives at the centre- not your blind arrogance to get a new house. Rs 13450 crores for Central Vista. Or, for fully vaccinating 45 crore Indians. Or, for 1 crore oxygen cylinders. Or, to give 2 crore families NYAY of Rs 6000. But, Prime Minister's ego is bigger than people's lives," Gandhi said in a tweet.

?13450 crores for Central Vista.

Or, for fully vaccinating 45 crore Indians.

Or, for 1 crore oxygen cylinders.

Or, to give 2 crore families NYAY of ?6000.

But, PM¡¯s ego is bigger than people¡¯s lives.

¡ª Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 4, 2021

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury accused the Central government of not providing help to the people.

"You cannot provide oxygen. You cannot provide vaccines. You cannot provide medicines and hospital beds. You cannot provide any succour. You only provide misleading propaganda, excuses and untruths," Yechury tweeted along with a Hindi couplet that said, "If you are incapabale, why don't you step down."

Many others also shared the opinion.

Forget questioning Narendra Modi for his criminal incompetence, there are Bhakts who are even defending 13,000 Crore being spent for his Pet Central Vista Project during Pandemic, while India is taking aid from foreign countries to tackle the Pandemic

¡ª Joy (@Joydas) May 6, 2021

Are you still defending the central vista? Are you still defending the PM?

¡ª Ankur T¨¦wari (@ankurtewari) May 6, 2021

The central vista project amidst the devastation of COVID with shortage of oxygen, medicines & hospital beds & India's fiscal balance strained will go down in history for callousness. The money should be used for financial handouts to the poor who are suffering beyond measure.

¡ª Kaushik Basu (@kaushikcbasu) May 7, 2021

Central Vista project.All heritage lamp posts and British link chains all uprooted along the Rajpath, including Jamun trees. ??

Such a beautiful this area was .But megalomaniac didn't like that pic.twitter.com/66PH9h6kCO

¡ª ?? Ashish (@DixitAshish96) May 5, 2021

People are dying of Covid but PM's priority is the Central Vista project costing thousands of crores of rupees. Is he mad? Should we not be building hospitals instead? How much more price the nation must pay for electing a megalomaniac as PM?

¡ª Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) May 3, 2021

Priorities of Govt of India in times when people are dying due to lack of medicines, oxygen cylinders and hospital beds

1. New parliament New Pm House Central Vista

2. Selling of banks ongoing (IDBI Disinvestment approved)

3. Petrol diesel price hike continues post elections

¡ª Vaibhav Walia (@vbwalia) May 6, 2021

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear a petition to stay the construction work of the central government's Central Vista project amid the surge in COVID-19 cases.

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The petition moved by Anya Malhotra and Sohail Hashmi has asked the apex court to suspend all construction activity of the Central Vista Avenue Redevelopment Project in compliance with orders issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority during the subsistence of the peak phase of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.