Agra, April 29: A key project of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the Rs 133 crore 207 km-long cycle track from Etawah to Agra, is in shambles for want of care and patronage. Many villagers use the track to dry cow dung cakes or wash clothes.
The concrete-layered cycle track along the wilderness and ravines of Yamuna did not find many users or cycle enthusiasts.
"In Bah area, the track was not even fully complete but the then government was in a hurry to inaugurate the project on November 26, 2016," said a local school teacher, Subodh Kumar.
Akhilesh Yadav wanted to promote cycling in a big way. "He was often seen cycling for rallies through villages," Kumar said. Cycle is his party's election symbol.
The cycle track, with colourful pillars meandering along shady trees, had to be bulldozed in Agra city to make way for six-lane Fatehabad road, connecting Kheria Airport with the Taj Mahal.
"Since this stretch of road is frequently used by VIPs and foreign dignitaries, a plan to widen it had been there in the pipeline for a long time," a contractor at the site said.
After a hue and cry was raised by some local groups, the State Public Works Department said it will build a new cycling track after the widening of the road is completed.
"But given the circumstances, it is not likely. The present political dispensation is not interested," a Samajwadi Party worker said.
"In any case, how many people used the cycle track? For security reasons, foreign tourists showed no interest while villagers prefer motor bikes these days," said Shravan Kumar Singh, an environmentalist.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
