The Hindu | Government allocated nearly twice of Central Vista cost on vaccination: Puri

May 07,2021

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry Hardeep Puri on Friday hit back at the Congress, saying the government had allocated nearly double of what it would spend on the Central Vista redevelopment project for the vaccination programme.

The government’s decision to go ahead with the construction of Parliament and the Central Vista Avenue while the country grapples with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn the ire of the Opposition.

In a series of tweets, Mr. Puri said: “Congress’s discourse on Central Vista is bizarre.

Cost of Central Vista is about ₹20,000 crore, over several years. GoI has allocated nearly twice that amount for vaccination! India’s healthcare budget for just this year was over ₹3 lakh crore. We know our priorities.”

Hundreds of projects
There were hundreds of projects being executed by various government departments and that governance had not come to a standstill. “Central Vista is just another ongoing project. It’s only the Congress that’s obsessed about it, nobody else,” he stated.

It was only the contracts for the new Parliament building and the revamp of the Central Vista Avenue that had been awarded for ₹862 crore and ₹477 crore respectively so far, while the other components of the plan would be spread over many years.

The Minister said the Congress wanted to distract “from monumental governance failures in their states by spreading lies”.

"So they indulge in cheap politics despite knowing this project creates direct & indirect employment for thousands of skilled, semi-skilled & unskilled workers in these times,” he said.

He accused the Congress of hypocrisy, saying the party and its allies were spending on new projects like an MLA hostel in Maharashtra and a Legislative Assembly building in Chhattisgarh. Congress leaders had raised the demand for a new Parliament building during the UPA government’s rule, he added.