C.P. Joshi may have been made the General Secretary of Congress Party in charge of eastern States, but the eyes of the former psychology professor are likely to be set on Rajasthan.

Rajasthan is one of the States that is set to go to polls over the next few months. After resigning, Joshi said, “Whatever (sic) the new role, my party assigns to me, I will be performing to the best of my ability. I thank the party high command for giving me an opportunity to work as a Cabinet Minister.”

Joshi held the Highways portfolio for two years and four months, and the Railway portfolio on an additional charge for two one-month stints during the last eight months, after the then railway ministers had resigned.

Highways record

As Highways Minister, Joshi was credited with taking steps that cleared the bidding process for highway projects in the first year and achieving road project awards of over 7,000 km in 2011-12.

Incidentally, the CBI had flagged concerns of corruption in the national highway project award process during Kamal Nath’s regime as Minister, who was Joshi’s predecessor.

However, in 2012-13, many of the projects awarded in the previous year did not move forward for various reasons and he spent his time negotiating with different Ministries to remove the obstacles to ensure the smooth implementation of stalled projects.

Also, in 2012-13, road project awards dipped with bidders turning cautious.

But 5,800 km of roads, including 2,800 km of national highway, were built during this period.

IT savvy

Joshi was one of the votaries of using IT, and used the social media to reach out. One of the first things he did was to put the NHAI on Facebook, and held Google hangout sessions to reach out to stakeholders.

Mamuni.das@thehindu.co.in

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