Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Friday, launched a scathing attack on the opposition, asserting that the memories of anarchy and goonda raj of the Samajwadi Party rule were still fresh in the minds of the people.
“Opposition leaders are in the habit of claiming credit for the development works done by the samajwadis. The people have not forgotten the rampant corruption and loot of public money during the Samajwadi Party government,” the chief minister said in the state assembly on Friday while replying to the debate on the supplementary grants for the current fiscal 2023-24.
Referring to specific instances of corruption during the Akhilesh Yadav government, the chief minister said, “Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre in Lucknow stands out as the biggest example of state sponsored dacoity. The estimated cost of the project was Rs 265 crore, the expenditure was Rs 821 crore. Even after huge expenditure the project remains incomplete.”
Gomti Riverfront is another scam of the SP government in which against the original estimate of Rs 167 crore, Rs 1,437 crore were spent by the government, he said, adding that the project was far from complete and the matter had been referred to the central investigation agencies.
Citing a glaring case of waste of public money, Yogi Adityanath said, “The building of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court was constructed at a cost of Rs 1,516 crore. The strength of the Lucknow bench of the high court is only 30 judges while 20 judges sit in Lucknow. Against the requirement of 30 chambers of judges, as many as 76 chambers were constructed.”
He added that the government has to incur huge expenditure in the maintenance of the high court building.
Yogi Adityanath said the figures presented by the leader of opposition were not true. The chief minister said the leader of opposition had also developed the habit of speaking against the established traditions of the House.
Taking a jibe, the chief minister said, “Perhaps the leader of the opposition has little time for doing the homework. Anyway, he doesn’t have time, but he tried anyway.”
While presenting the details of the economic progress made during the six years of the Bharatiya Janata Party government, the chief minister said, “Loans worth Rs 2.42 lakh crore have been distributed by banks.”
He underscored the expansive reach of banking services, with a branch now available within every 5-kilometre radius. He said the implementation of Banking Correspondent Sakhi had been instrumental in extending banking services to every gram panchayat.
The chief minister said that as per the Income Tax Department, in June 2014, 1.65 lakh income tax returns were filed from UP, whereas in 2023, 11.92 lakh income tax returns were filed. He said today, Rs 1.5 lakh crore was being collected by the government as goods and services tax and UP was at the top position in GST registration. He said 1.69 lakh traders had benefited from the Chief Minister Traders Accident Insurance Scheme. He said today, UP was the number one state in the country in terms of molasses production and ethanol blending.
“Not only this, earlier there used to be a long process for transferring residential and agricultural property, whereas today this work is being done with a fee of only Rs 5,000,” he said.