ROORKEE: A newly constructed bridge on Gangnahar Canal has become a bone of contention between BJP MLA from Roorkee Pradip Batra and mayor Yashpal Rana from the Congress.Batra had named the bridge ‘Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Prakash Ganga Bridge’ and put up a signboard affirming that on Tuesday, but Congress workers on Thursday replaced the sign with another banner declaring the structure as ‘Sardar Bhagat Singh Kranti Setu’ bridge.The mayor and the BJP legislator had clashed last month after Batra and his supporters allegedly moved the statue of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad, which was placed on a cemented pillar at a market in Civil Lines, to a nearby crossing, which is now being called Mahavir Chowk.On Thursday, while setting up a new banner, Congress workers said that Batra ran businesses under the brand name of Prakash and was trying to promote his personal ventures through it.“The MLA owns Prakash Sweets and Prakash Hotel in the town so he has deliberately named this bridge Prakash,” said district general secretary of Congress Uday Singh Pundir. The bridge built of steel has come up at the cost of Rs 6.10 crore to connect Civil Lines and BT Gunj market.TOI spoke to the mayor who alleged, “Batra is a very shrewd person. He wishes to use public property for his vested interest. To promote the Prakash brand, which he has developed after his father’s name, he named the bridge Prakash Ganga Bridge which is wrong.”Batra, however, said that the name of the bridge had nothing to do with his private businesses. “I added the word Prakash to it since it is the first of its kind bridge in the state that is lit up at night.” The bridge has colourful bulbs which light up at night.Batra added, “Rana has not carried out a single developmental work in the town throughout his tenure and now he can’t digest developmental works by the BJP.”In August, the Congress and the BJP in Roorkee were embroiled in a bitter conflict over the shifting of the statue of Chandra Shekhar Azad. The statue was originally set up opposite a public toilet in Civil Lines market in 1971. Batra had said that they got a platform constructed at the crossing and placed the statue on it to decongest the area where the statue was originally set up. Rana said that the shifting was “illegal” since permission was not taken from the municipal corporation for it.

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