In a huge embarrassment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister KJ Alphons has raised serious concerns over the ground situation in Varanasi. The minister while speaking to media said that traffic situation in Varanasi is extremely bad and the city is dirty.

"The roads here are extremely congested which results in a traffic jam. The city is also filthy and a lot of cleanliness work is required. For cleaning Ganga three sewage plants have been installed," said Alphons who is currently serving as the Union Minister of State for Tourism.

KJ Alphons who came to Varanasi on a two-day visit also said that only 5 lakhs 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 size to at least 10 lakhs, added the tourism minister.

He also expressed concerns over people disposing of milk and petals in the river while offering prayers at the ghats.

The minister also inspected the sewage plants and ghats in Varanasi with a team of Centre and state officials.

Alphons has directed the officials to install more LED lights near all the prominent places in Varanasi during the inspection.

KJ Alphons remark has come as a huge disappointment for PM Narendra Modi who has been boasting about unprecedented development work in the holy city.

The minister also expressed unhappiness over dirt piling up in the river Ganga which contradicts the government's claims of successfully implementing 'Clean Ganga Mission' one of the dream projects of PM Modi from his parliamentary constituency.

Taking a dig at PM Modi over his minister's remark, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Juhie Singh said, "Now the BJP minister has started criticising the ground situation in Varanasi. It is imminent now that neither Centre nor the state government has done any development work and PM also knows about it."

Defending his government over Alphons' statement, UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said that the Tourism Minister is from South and the cities there are more developed. The situation in Varanasi has improved and people of the city are also acknowledging the changes.