Lashing out at Akhilesh Yadav for calling the urban local bodies polls “an election for garbage collection”, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Monday, said that the Samajwadi Party president’s statement was an insult to six crore people and reiterated that this was an election to clean the garbage, filth and anarchy of Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party.
Addressing a public meeting in Barabanki ahead of the municipal election, the chief minister said, “Prior to 2017, every city had virtually turned into a garbage dump. The cities were identified by piles of garbage in them. You must have read the statement of the president of Samajwadi Party today. He said that he was not interested in municipal elections because it was an election for garbage collection.”
“Use of such words by a person who has been the chief minister of a state like Uttar Pradesh is an insult to the six crore people living in urban areas of the state,” Yogi said, pointing out that "this is not garbage, rather it is an election to clean the garbage, filth and anarchy of SP-BSP”.
“On the contrary, we are contesting the municipal elections as we strive to make our cities smart and safe and improve the quality of life of people by providing basic amenities. The Bharatiya Janata Party government is working towards making urban life clean, beautiful, and safe. Therefore, the party has come to appeal to you to vote for the BJP candidates in the municipal bodies elections to bring about comprehensive change in the standard of living of the people as well as to provide them with the benefits of welfare schemes,” he said.
Yogi Adityanath attacked the opposition parties by saying that the people of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Congress were following a policy of appeasement and divide the society on the basis of caste.
The chief minister said that his government was providing benefits of welfare schemes to everyone today, without any kind of discrimination and with the aim of development for all.
“We did not allow favouritism to flourish, rather we focused on empowering society, and today, the results of that are visible,” the chief minister said.
“Respecting everyone’s feelings and faith, the double-engine government is working to connect millions of people in the country with free housing, toilets, and employment opportunities through programmes like Skill Development, Startup India, Standup India, and Skill India,” Chief Minister Yogi said.
He added that Jan Dhan bank accounts of crores of people had been opened in the country whereas health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh was also being provided under Ayushman Bharat. Besides, he said, since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic until now, 80 crore people had been provided free rations while 220 crore vaccine doses were also given for free.
The chief minister said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was taking development works forward. “It is with the efforts of the double-engine government that Purvanchal Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway connect eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand regions with other parts of the state, while the work of Ganga Expressway is going on at a war footing,” he pointed out.