Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Sunday, said that Kashi, which was represented by world’s most popular leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Parliament, had seen restoration of its pristine glory as a spiritual and cultural centre of the country in the last eight years, along with transformation of its appearance with better infrastructure, cleanliness and beautification of ghats and renovation of temples.
Addressing a Prabuddhajan Sammelan at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University Grounds, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that it was because of these changes that while earlier the city witnessed arrival of one crore tourists in a year, now one crore tourists were visiting the city in a month itself.
“Till 2016, sewer water used to flow on the roads and there were heaps of garbage on the streets while the condition of the ghats was pathetic in Kashi, but today the change is in front of all of us. Today, Kashi has four-lane connectivity from all sides. Along with this, it is connected by air services to all major cities of the country. Ghats have been beautified and the city cleaned. Besides, the city is emerging as a major educational and health centre,” he said.
The chief minister mentioned in this context the setting up of a cancer institute and Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya Cancer Hospital and launch of new facilities in hospitals.
Expressing gratitude to the prime minister, the chief minister said that Modi introduced for the first time inland waterways in Kashi which was helping export of foodgrains, fruits, vegetables and One District One Product items of UP to foreign countries.
Emphasising that this pace of development should not be allowed to stop, the chief minister said that Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the municipal elections would strengthen the triple-engine model of development, ensuring progress like a bullet train.
Yogi said that an excellent environment of security had been created with traders and women feeling safe in Uttar Pradesh. He added, “During COVID-19 pandemic, an Integrated Command and Control Centre was set up, which not only ensured traffic, garbage and COVID-19 management, but also helped in monitoring the activities of anti-social elements through CCTV cameras and taking them to task.
According to the chief minister, in Uttar Pradesh 45 lakh houses had been given to the poor and needy under PM Awas Yojana benefitting around 2.5 crore people of which 43,000 houses had been provided in Kashi alone. He said that 2.61 crore toilets had been built for the poor.
The chief minister added that as India embarked on the journey to realise Prime Minister Modi’s goal of making the country a $5-trillion economy, Uttar Pradesh must perform as the growth engine of the country.
He said that Uttar Pradesh would become the largest economy of the country and now India was changing, it was being recognised among the big and powerful countries of the world.
“The preconditions for making UP the growth engine are taking forward the programmes of urbanisation, investment, employment, skill development and developing education and health centres in a robust manner,” he added.
According to Yogi, the prime minister connected 10 cities of UP with the Smart City Mission, which is helping develop UP’s cities into safe and smart cities.
He added that as India celebrates Amrit Mahotsav of Independence, India’s global prestige had improved and the country was the fastest growing economy of the world under the leadership of the prime minister.
“Today India has become the fifth largest economy in the world, leaving Britain, which ruled the country for 200 years, behind. Apart from this, India is leading the G20 in Amrit Kaal. G20 countries control 75 per cent of the world's trade, and have rights over 85 per cent of GDP and 90 per cent patents while 60 per cent of the world's population lives here. India has got the opportunity to lead these 20 countries,” he remarked.
Talking about employment, Yogi said that 10 lakh Agniveers were being recruited across the country under Mission Rojgar, who after retiring would be given jobs by the state governments. He said in Uttar Pradesh, five lakh government jobs had been given to the youth while 1.61 crore had got employment through schemes like ODOP and Vishwakarma Shram Samman.
Meanwhile, the chief minister also gave gifts worth crores of rupees to the beneficiaries of various schemes run by the Central and state governments. Yogi handed over the keys of houses to the beneficiaries of the prime minister and chief minister housing schemes, in addition to distributing tablets to the students. He also provided cheques to industries related to micro, small and medium enterprises ( MSMEs).
The function was also addressed by Dr Jayanthi (granddaughter of ‘Mahakavi’ Subramania Bharati), Dr Ashok Rai (former president of IMA), Murlidhar Singh (former vice-president, Central Bar Association), Dev Bhattacharya (president, Ramnagar Industrial Estate) and Prof Hareram Tripathi (Vice-Chancellor, SSU). UP ministers Anil Rajbhar, Ravindra Jaiswal, Dayashankar Mishra ‘Dayalu’, zila panchayat chairperson Poonam Maurya, Mayor Mridula Jaiswal, MLAs Dr Neelkanth Tiwari, Dr Awadhesh Singh, T Ram, Sunil Patel, regional BJP president Mahesh Srivastava, district president Hansraj Vishwakarma, city chief Vidyasagar Rai and many others were present at the function.
