CM: UP no more a 'bimaru' state

| | Lucknow
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CM: UP no more a 'bimaru' state

Thursday, 04 March 2021 | PNS | Lucknow

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said UP was no longer a 'BIMARU' (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) state and during the last four years of the Bharatiya Janata Party rule, the ranking of the state's economy had improved to second position from the fifth. 

The chief minister said four years ago the state gross domestic product was Rs 10.90 lakh crore and now it had increased to Rs 21.73 lakh crore.

Targeting the previous Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party governments, Yogi Adityanath said, "During polls, opposition parties issued election manifesto while the BJP had issued a Sankalp Patra (document of resolve). Sankalp ka vikalp (alternative) nahi hai, so we have to implement it."

"Samajwadi Party lacks an inclusive approach for development in Indian context and they followed the principle of Charvak of having fun on borrowed money. The focus of the SP government budget was immediate political gains without long-term vision which alienated all sections of society," the chief minister charged.

"After taking over as chief minister in 2017, I visited the chief minister's office in Shastri Bhawan. I was told that the previous chief minister was irregular in attending the office and the cabinet meetings used to last 10 minutes."

He said earlier the development schemes were formulated with the objective of benefitting a particular family while the BJP's focus was the development of the state and welfare of the common people.

The chief minister added, "There is nothing new, the same people, same system and same resources, the only difference is intention and the change is now visible all around."

The chief minister claimed "our focus in the budget is not vote but development and formulating a road map for the development of the state."

Yogi Adityanath said along with increasing the size of the budget, his government's focus was on increasing the per capita income of the people of the state. He said in 2015-16, the per capita income in UP was Rs 45,000 which had increased to Rs 95,000. He said from 1947 to 2017, ease of living was never in the agenda of all previous governments, while the BJP government focused its attention on providing basic amenities like shelter, drinking water, LPG connections and electricity connection to every household.

He said during the last four years, shelter was provided to 40 lakh families and electricity connections to 1.38 crore families. He said from 1947 to 2017, only two per cent households had the facility of piped water supply while the BJP government with its Jal Jeevan Mission would provide piped water supply to every household by 2024.

The chief minister pointed out that the eastern UP district of Gorakhpur along with a total 38 districts were suffering from encephalitis since 1977 but no government paid attention to the disease. He said the BJP government had succeeded in eliminating the disease from the eastern UP and bringing down the mortality rate by over 95 per cent.

Referring to the three agriculture related laws, Yogi Adityanath said contract farming and reforms in agriculture marketing would benefit the farmers and help in doubling their income. He said irrigation projects pending for several decades were completed by his government and it would bring down the input cost of the farmers, thus adding to their incomes.

The chief minister said during the last four years, the state government had ensured payment of over Rs 1.25 lakh crore to the sugarcane farmers and for the current cane crushing (2020-21) season, Rs 10,757 crore, or 52 per cent, cane price had been paid to the farmers.

Rebutting the charges of the opposition, the chief minister said during the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party rules, over two dozen sugar mills were either closed or sold off to the private sector while his government had reopened several closed sugar mills.

"What kind of criticism is this? We revived the closed mills and ensured the operation of 119 sugar mills at the peak of coronavirus pandemic in April-May 2020 yet we are dubbed as anti-farmer while those who closed the sold the mills are being claimed to be the messiah of farmers," the chief minister said, adding that the opposition was leveling baseless charges as they had no agenda for development and they were speechless when facts were placed in the public domain.

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