Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Wednesday that his government was working for holistic development in the state and would focus on supplying of pure drinking water to every household through Har Ghar Nal Yojana and developing Maa Vindhyavasini Dham.
Addressing a public meeting at the Government Inter College grounds here on the third day of the Ganga Yatra, the chief minister said a ` 6,000-crore project had been prepared for development of Mirzapur.
Yogi said the Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions, which had been neglected for decades, were now witnessing rapid development.
The chief minister said the river Ganga was not only a symbol of faith but also the base of Indian economy, adding that the Ganga Yatra was a confluence of faith and economy and everyone should contribute to it.
Yogi started his address raising slogans in praise of Maa Ganga and Maa Vindhyavasini and appealed to the people to keep the river clean.
The five-day Ganga Yatra is being taken out from Bijnor and Ballia and both the legs of the yatra would converge at Kanpur on January 31.
Yogi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Namami Gange Project to make the river Ganga clean and ever-flowing. The chief minister said that his government had taken up the work of cleaning the Ganga on a war-footing.
“Earlier, the sewage of Kanpur used to fall directly into the Ganga, badly polluting its water and making it poisonous. But now, not a single drop of sewage falls in the river,” he said, adding that once Bhagirath had brought Maa Ganga from heaven to earth and today PM Narendra Modi had become a modern Bhagirath for making all efforts to clean its water.
Highlighting the achievements of his government, Yogi said that medical colleges had been established in Mirzapur and Sonbhadra and the entire Vindhya region was marching towards overall development.
“Since decades, Bansagar project was pending and its file was gathering dust during the previous regimes but Modi has made the dreams of the region a reality,” the chief minister said.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the Ganga Yatra was being taken out for a great purpose and everyone should contribute to it.
“Ganga is our culture. River Ganga provides salvation to us not only in this world but hereafter also,” he said.
He said that through the Namami Gange project, Prime Minister Modi had started the work of making Ganga clean in 2014 but the then UP government did not contribute to it.
“You handed over the reins of the state to Yogi Adityanath. Now, Modi and Yogi are here among you to clean the Ganga. Definitely, their efforts will bear fruit and the Ganga will become clean,” the Union minister added.
BJP state chief Swatantra Dev Singh said the Ganga Yatra aimed to bring prosperity in the lives of the downtrodden and the underprivileged.