Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to make his Lok Sabha constituency a ‘smart city’ years ago. However, the holy city which is notorious for squalor hasn’t made much progress on this aspect, despite much-touted cleanliness drive spearheaded by the PM himself.
Union minister of state for tourism Alphons Kannanthanam, in an interview to a national daily, dubbed it a ‘dirty city’ while highlighting poor sanitation and traffic congestion in the congested city on the banks of the Ganga.
The minister’s comments, which is not in line with the previous reports that claimed the ‘Clean Ganga Mission’ was a success, is likely to embarrass Modi, who has been promising to make Varanasi like Kyoto, a beautiful city in Japan.
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Sensing the significance of the thumbs down given to Varanasi by a BJP minister himself, the party made a feeble attempt to defend itself. “The minister is from the south and the cities there are more developed. The situation in Varanasi has improved and people of the city are also acknowledging the changes,” Rakesh Tripathi, BJP spokesperson, said.
The union minister made the frank assessment about Modi’s constituency after holding an inspection of the sewage plants and ghats in Varanasi. A team of central and state officials accompanied him during his two-day visit to Varanasi. A prominent national daily reported that Alphons flagged the declining number of tourist arrivals in the pilgrim city and blamed it on untidy surroundings. “The city (Varanasi) is dirty, we need to clean it,” Alphons said.
Alphons noted that “only five lakh tourists are coming here and at Sarnath every year, which is very less. In the next two years, our focus is to double the tourists to at least 10 lakhs.”
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