Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Saturday, highlighted the achievement of his government during the last about four years. He hoped that due to the joint efforts of the Central and state governments, the country and the state would get a new direction of development.
Lauding the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief minister termed the Union budget presented under the challenging circumstances as incomparable and development-oriented and believed that with the intention of an all-inclusive, all-welfare and self-reliant India, it would be beneficial for the villages, poor farmers and youth, and every section of society.
The chief minister expressed these views while participating in the sixth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog virtually on Saturday.
He thanked the prime minister for being a guiding light in the tough COVID-19 times and securing the country with two vaccines and said that "Uttar Pradesh has become the first state in the country to inoculate COVID-19 vaccinations to 10 lakh people".
Highlighting the NITI Aayog's agenda of 'Making India a Global Manufacturing Hub', Yogi Adityanath said that by successfully implementing more than 500 reforms under the Business Reform Action Plan, the state of UP had moved from 12th position to second in the country in the Ease of Doing Business Rankings. He said to bring dynamism to investment promotion, the Invest Mitra portal had been set up.
"As a result of the state's positive policies, so far, proposals for investment of about Rs 45,000 crore have been received for 56 projects during the coronavirus period," the chief minister said and added, "As against the MoU of Rs 4,68,000 crore signed at Uttar Pradesh Investors' Summit, projects worth about Rs 3 lakh crore have been operationalised."
He also informed the NITI Aayog that about 50 lakh MSMEs had been created in the last four years and generated over 1.80 crore employment opportunities by providing funding to the units.
"In the last four years, my government has provided government jobs to more than four lakh youth," he added.
With regards to the agenda on agriculture, the chief minister said that food production in Uttar Pradesh in 2016-17 was 558 lakh metric tons and it increased to 602 lakh MT in 2019-20. He said in this financial year, 35.76 lakh MT of wheat was procured from 6.63 lakh farmers through 5,896 purchasing centres, for which a payment of Rs 6,885 crore was made. Besides, he said, a record paddy procurement of 66 lakh MT had been made till date from 12,78,900 farmers.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, an amount of Rs 27,134 crore had been transferred to over 240 lakh farmers of the state through DBT, he said.
Explaining the contribution of Uttar Pradesh towards the agenda of improving physical infrastructure, he said that road, rail and air connectivity had been the priority of his government. Yogi said that UP had become the premier state of the country with five major expressways. He said the work of the metro rail projects in Kanpur and Agra districts was on and metro and light metro transport systems were being considered seriously for Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Jhansi and Meerut.
"UP is committed to providing affordable, accessible, safe air services to common citizens by connecting each region to air services. With the development of a world-class international airport at Jewar in Gautam Buddha Nagar district, Kushinagar airport was also almost ready for international flights. Soon, five international airports in the state will be ready in Lucknow, Varanasi, Kushinagar, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ayodhya. At present seven airports in Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Prayagraj and Hindan are functional and flights from Bareilly airport are commencing from March 8, 2021. Airport development in ten other locations is at various stages of development," he said.
The chief minister said that more than 40 lakh houses had been constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Rural and Urban) and under Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana so far, providing a roof to the homeless people.
Regarding the power sector, the chief minister said that this sector has had a leading role in the development of the state. He said bringing unprecedented improvement in power supply, presently 24-hour supply at district headquarters, 21 hours 30 minutes supply at tehsil headquarters and 18 hours supply in villages was being provided as per roster.
The chief minister said that the agenda of accelerating human resource development was taken up by his government in right earnest. "We have launched Mission Prerna in all the districts, under which well thought out programmes are being conducted to enhance the quality of education while Operation Kayakalp was being conducted in the state to transform 1,35,000 schools by March 2022. To overcome the shortage of teachers, the recruitment and transfer of about 1,20,000 primary teachers have been done through a transparent online system."
Speaking about improving service delivery at grassroots level, the chief minister said that as many as 259 services of 36 departments had been made online by the state government. He said ration distribution was being done through E-PoS machines in ration shops. "This will be saving about Rs 1200 crore every year," he added.
The chief minister said citizens in rural areas were getting the benefit of various online services of the government through more than 60,000 common service centres established in the state. He said approximately 1.5 crore (98 per cent) complaints on the public hearing portal and about 65 lakh (98 percent) on CM Helpline 1076 had been successfully disposed of.
Yogi Adityanath said transfer of funds to the beneficiaries under the welfare schemes of the Health, Agriculture, Social Welfare and other departments by the state government was now being done directly in their accounts through DBT. He said the slips of sugarcane farmers had been made online using technology.
He said in every village, banking facilities were being easily extended to citizens of the remote areas by connecting BC Sakhi with online banking.
On the health and nutrition agenda, the chief minister said that there had been a remarkable improvement in the health facilities in the state. He said that the incidence of serious diseases like meningitis was almost over in the state.
He said by providing health services in remote areas of the state, 26,79,000 patients had been benefited through the Chief Minister Arogya Health Melas organised at rural and urban primary health centres every Sunday.
Yogi Adityanath said till 2017, state medical colleges/institutions were operational in only 12 districts of UP, and currently construction of government medical colleges/institutions was in progress in 30 more districts. He said AIIMS were established in the districts of Gorakhpur and Rae Bareli for excellent medical education in the state and in Varanasi district, a medical institute was being established on the lines of AIIMS. He said an Ayush University was being set up to promote excellent research in Yoga and Naturopathy.
The chief minister said that his government understood the importance of clean water for better health. "Before the inauguration of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the state, only 1.9 percent of the families were covered with FHTC (functional household tap connection). He said work had been started on 68 surface water-based projects to cover the entire areas of Bundelkhand and Vindhya with piped drinking water schemes. He said as per the resolution of the prime minister, the UP government was committed to providing 100 percent FHTC by the year 2024.
He said that India had already established itself as a global power with the slogan of 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas ' given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, keeping in mind the poor, youth, farmers, women, and all sections.
