Gorakhpur, : Of the proposals worth Rs 4.68 lakh crore received during the Investors Summit 2018 held in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradesh, proposals worth Rs 3.68 lakh crore have got off the ground, said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday.
Addressing a programme organised by a media group in Gorakhpur, the CM said that this could be made possible due to the guarantee of “security and strong infrastructure” that his Government has been able to provide to the industrialists in just four and a half years of its tenure.
He added: “Before 2017,the law and order situation in UP was so bad that industrialists ran away from making any investments in the state. Security and a sound infrastructure were non-existent. Roads were very poor. Extortion of businessmen by mafia dons was rampant. And if at all an entrepreneur dared to take the initiative, he used to retreat after months of the futile exercise of running from one office to another due to rampant scale corruption.”
Yogi said that after taking over the command of the state, he directed officers to work on it and deputed officials to organise programmes in six major cities of the country to bring investment to UP. “I personally visited Mumbai. There, I got an investment proposal of Rs 2.5 lakh crore rupees in a single day. Everyone knows the achievement of UP’s Investors Summit held in the presence of PM Modi.”
The Chief Minister remarked that when infrastructure is strengthened, availability of employment is also guaranteed through investments. He described it as the backbone of an economy. The CM added further that industrial clusters are being built along expressways with the objective to bring investments and create job opportunities on a massive scale. He said that already a large number of employments have been created in the state due to rising investments. Besides, in the last four and a half years, four and a half lakh youths were given government jobs while more than two crore people got employment through Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), he pointed out.
“It is a matter of joy that the largest state in terms of population has the lowest unemployment rate today”, he quipped.
“Mosquitoes and mafia have been wiped out from the state”
CM Yogi said that when he became MP for the first time in 1998, mosquito-borne disease encephalitis and mafia were the biggest problems in Gorakhpur. And this was the condition of the entire state due to the style of functioning of the previous governments.
“As an MP, I started the movement to free Gorakhpur from mosquito and mafia with the help of citizens and businessmen. The mission became successful because of people’s strong faith in our intent. Similarly, with coordinated inter-departmental effort since we took over in 2017, we managed to control encephalitis. The result is for everyone to see. Mafia was wiped out because of our zero tolerance policy against crime”,
CM Yogi said.
The Chief Minister said that from 1977-78 to 2016, 1200 to 1500 children died of encephalitis every year.
“There was a time when in 1998, I was not even allowed to raise the issue as a state subject inside the Parliament as the disease was also common in the states of Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Odisha etc. However, I continued to raise it as a national issue from then onwards and after becoming Chief Minister in 2017, I ensured that health infrastructure was strengthened at CHC and PHC levels while conducting cleanliness drives and ensuring availability of safe drinking water to people. PM Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mission also played a big role in this as toilets were built in the homes of every poor to free the society from open defecation. Today the death rate due to encephalitis has come down to 95 percent.”
Referring to the elimination of the mafia, the CM narrated an incident. He said that when he became an MP for the first time in 1998, he went to meet the then Fertiliser Minister Surjit Singh Barnala regarding the problem of the closed fertiliser factory in Gorakhpur. Barnala, according to the CM, could not believe that he (a Yogi) had been elected from Gorakhpur. Barnala had a very poor impression of the city as a gunshot was fired during one of his public meetings in Gorakhpur and he had never been there again.
CM Yogi said that since 2017, the situation in UP, however, has completely changed. This is the first time that there has been no riot in nearly four and a half years in the state and when there is no riot, every section of the society feels safe. He said that illegal properties of mafia dons and gangsters are being bulldozed.
Encephalitis control helped in successful management of corona
He said that the experience of successful control of encephalitis came in handy in the excellent management of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). He asserted that the second wave of the pandemic has been successfully controlled and the Government is prepared for the third wave if at all it takes place. “UP, with a population of 25 crore, has only 600 active cases today. There is not a single case in about ten districts. We have done 6.64 crore Covid tests in the state. We are also far ahead of other states in vaccination. Yesterday, 28 lakh people were vaccinated in a single day. So far, 5.16 crore people have been vaccinated.”
The Chief Minister said that the Government was capable of vaccinating its entire population in three months if vaccines were available.
CM Yogi said that the situation of corona has been more serious in other states of the country and in some countries, but there is no media trial there. “Those raising questions on UP should also do a comparative study”, he pointed out. Giving an example, the CM said that in the second wave, UP was serving 250 million people with 700 metric tonnes of oxygen, whereas Delhi, which got 800 metric tonnes of oxygen, failed to take care of its population of 1.75 crore. People of Delhi were getting treatment in cities like Noida, Meerut, Saharanpur of UP despite the fact that Delhi gets maximum health fund from the Centre.
Experiments like Balini Milk Producer on cards in 3 new areas including Gorakhpur
.Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that women’s safety and self-reliance is the priority of his government and in view of this Mission Shakti was started in 2020. He added that the Government plans to conduct experiments on the pattern of Balini Milk Producer in Bundelkhand, which is run exclusively by women, in other areas also and efforts are already being made in this direction. He informed that Balini Milk Producer has earned a net profit of Rs 6 crore while doing business of Rs 800 crore in 2 years. The Government is taking continuous steps for the education of women. A total of 30,000 girls were recruited in the Police force in the state. Women account for 55 percent of 1.25 lakh teachers recruited in the state.
Focus on development of the entire state, not just Gorakhpur’s.
CM Yogi said that his focus is not only on Gorakhpur, but the entire state when it comes to development.
The Chief Minister said that all infrastructure projects like Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway, Ganga Expressway are for the entire state. All the tehsil headquarters are being connected with two-lanes and four-lanes. As 54 Nakas of the state are adjacent to other states, the focus is also on interstate connectivity. He said that a 12-lane road would be built between Delhi and Meerut.
The CM said that in UP which never had a single metro rail, metro was being operated in two cities and by November it would start operating in Agra and Kanpur also. Metro work is also going on in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Meerut and Jhansi.
‘Shri Ram, our ancestor’
CM Yogi said that Indians take pride in looking upon Lord Shri Ram as our reverred ancestor and those who question this, their DNA raises doubts. He said that no one should hesitate to call Lord Ram our ancestor. Indonesian Muslim artistes had come to Ayodhya to perform Ramlila because they believe in Ram. Even their names were Sanskritised and despite being Muslims they take pride in the fact that Lord Ram is their ancestor too. When asked to elaborate further on this, he said that he respected Islam, but his ancestor was Lord Ram.
