launching 62 development and infrastructure projects including lucknow Haat, in the state capital on Saturday, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said the battle of ballots in 2017 would be fought on the basis of work done and not slogans. The projects launched on Saturday are for Noida, Greater Noida, Yamuna Expressway besides the Haat at lucknow.
Talking to reporters here on Saturday afternoon, the Yadav had a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that the voters would not entertain slogans in the 2017 Assembly election and would assess the work done by the government. Yadav said the Samajwadi Party’s next manifesto would highlight the programmes launched by his Government for the welfare of youth and to provide them employment.
“The number of young voters in the next Assembly elections will be the largest ever in the state, setting a new record,” he added. Yadav said the Samajwadi Party had fulfilled all the promises it had made in the last election. He pointed out that the promises made in 2012 Assembly elections, including distribution of laptops, unemployment allowance and others, had been fulfilled in a record time.
Yadav also stressed on promoting ‘Make in UP’ in a big way, saying that the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ slogan would succeed only if UP made much contribution. When asked about disbursement of compensation to farmers who lost their crops in the recent rains, the Chief Minister said his Government was doing whatever was required. “The Centre is patting its back by raising the compensation for farmers by one-and-half times but we will be more than happy if they raise it by five times,” the Chief Minister said, adding that the UP Government was ready to suspend some of the projects to pay compensation to farmers if the Centre further raised it to five times.
Denying the charges of Opposition parties that he or his ministers had not visited the rural areas where the rains had affected the farmers, Yadav said he had visited several places. “I have not posted my photos in the social media due to which the Opposition parties are making such allegations,” he said and added that the state ministers and officials were visiting the rain-hit areas and were in touch with the farmers.
Earlier, while inaugurating the lucknow Haat, the Chief Minister announced that similar Haats would be constructed in Noida and Ghaziabad and asked The tourism department to organise Mera lucknow, Mera Varanasi, Mera Noida campaigns on the lines of Mera Agra held recently to promote tourism in the state. He said that Noida and Greater Noida would turn into a hub of industrial and smart city activities very soon as infrastructure was being developed in a big way.
Tourism Minister Om Prakash Singh said there was a rise in the number of tourists coming to Uttar Pradesh, at an annual growth of 12 per cent. He said UP was the second most favourite destination for the domestic tourists and the fourth for the international tourists. The minister hit out at the Centre for not providing funds to develop tourist places in the state or giving UP any new project. Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan said the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and Eastern Corridor would have a junction at Noida and Greater Noida.
He said investment of Rs 33,000 crore through early bird project was proposed for Noida by DIMC, and it would create at least 5,000 jobs, Ranjan said the electronic manufacturing cluster to be set up on 100 acre land would attract investments of Rs 4,000 crore. Noida and Greater Noida Authority CEO Rama Raman claimed that Noida and Greater Noida would become smart, green solar cities very soon.