Terming next year as very crucial for Samajwadi Party Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that the priority of his government would be to complete all on-going development projects by stipulated time so the benefits of the government schemes could reach the poor and needy.
“The government will pursue its agenda of development during the remaining tenure. All the ongoing projects will be completed so that the benefits of government schemes could reach poor and needy,” Yadav said in an interview to The Pioneer. He said that after assuming power in March, 2012, the Samajwadi Party government had chalked out plan for all-round development of the state with an aim to benefit all sections of the society, especially the downtrodden.
“The government made efforts to bring the state back on track as the entire system had collapsed during the previous BSP regime. People were not getting benefits from the health service power scenario was equally bad as the previous government had done very little for the betterment of these sectors. The Samajwadi Party government started focusing on farmers, labourers, the downtrodden, women, students and small businessmen. Special focus was on education. Girls’ education was given special impetus,” he said.
Yadav said that during the last almost four years the State government has made concerted efforts to transform Uttar Pradesh into a Model State with Inclusive Governance as its main Agenda. To achieve this aim, many policies have been formulated and programmes have been implemented.
To buttress his point he said that according to the estimates the growth rate of Uttar Pradesh was 5 per cent as against the growth rate of the country which was 4.7 per cent for the year 2013-14. For the first two quarters of the year 2014-15 the growth rate of the state has been estimated at 6.3 per cent and 5.4 percent respectively, while the country’s growth rate for the corresponding period has been 5.7 per cent and 5.3 per cent only, he said.
“The service sector of the state is placed third in the country. So, one can safely conclude that the state government started functioning in very trying conditions and has been performing well,” he said adding: “In this period, the performance of the government has been nothing short of excellent. The State has grown at a much higher rate than the national average. We have excelled on every possible indicator.”
On law and order front Chief Minister said that whenever SP comes to power a canard is being spread on law and order issue. Even smallest of the incidents have been exaggerated. The Budaun incident is a classic example of it. Some elements always become active to ignite social unrest all over the state. All this is done just to paint the Samajwadi Party government in a poor manner, he said.
“You must agree that the police has to perform its duties under difficult conditions. Its efforts are hardly appreciated even if it genuinely does good work. The state government has given full support to the police department to act freely and responsibly to maintain law and order all over the state. There is a huge shortage of police personnel and the government is making efforts to recruit sufficient number of policemen. Besides, we are also focusing on modernisation of the department,” he said.
He said government has been continuously focusing on the security of women. With this objective the state government launched ‘1090’ Women Power line. “We are working on a revised and most modern ‘Dial 100’ System which will be the smartest facility in the world. Renowned expert Venkat Changavalli who designed systems (hardware and software) for ‘108’ Ambulance has been assigned to design new ‘Dial 100’ System synchronised with infrastructure, so that police can reach the spot within 10-15 minutes after receiving information,” he said. When asked to judge the performance of his government Chief Minister said it is 10/10. “However, there is always scope of improvement,” he said.