NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday slammed opposition parties for propagating a false narrative over the government’s Central Vista project.
“…for the past few months a false narrative is being propagated about the Central Vista project. None of the historic iconic cultural buildings will be touched. They will remain exactly as they are,” Puri said addressing a press briefing.
The union minister said that currently two projects were underway -the new Parliament building and the widening of the Central Vista Avenue.
People are freely interchanging the “Centra Vista” and “Centra Vista Avenue”, the union minister said.
“Currently, two new projects are underway- the New Parliament Building and Central Vista Avenue. A decision on these projects was taken before the pandemic. The total cost of the project is around Rs 1300 crore,” the Union Minister said.
He said the Parliament building is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 862 crore and the Central Vista Avenue at Rs 477 crore.
The minister also pointed out said that in 2012 Meira Kumar’s OSD had written to the housing ministry’s secretary saying that a decision has been taken to build a new Parliament building.
He also cited a newspaper article written by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in 2012 calling for a new Parliament building.
Puri said the “current Parliament building falls under the seismic zone 4…the building is in in a state beyond redemption so a decision was taken to construct a new building.”
Puri assured that the Centre has allotted an adequate amount of money for carrying out the drive. He said, “It is being falsely propagated that Rs 20,000 crores are being spent on the vaccination program. I can assure you that the Centre has allocated Rs 35,000 crores for vaccination. There is no shortage of money for vaccination, there is enough money. The availability of vaccine is another matter.”
Puri also slammed the opposition parties by saying that people speak whatever they wish to without being aware of facts. He said, “First of all, where did the Rs 20,000 crore figure come from? People in the opposition parties speak whatever there feel like without proper facts. The Central Vista project will have proper offices for 51 ministries with Metro, New Parliament House, 9 Office Buildings, New Indira Gandhi Center for Performing Arts all under Rs 13,000-15,000 crores.” (AGENCY)
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