The Uttar Pradesh Government is preparing the ground to fight the next Assembly polls early next year on the plank of the MSME sector, construction of four expressways, one each connecting the underdeveloped Purvanchal and Bundelkhand regions, and also developing industrial/defence corridors along them besides the mega redevelopment of the temple town of Ayodhya.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the One District One Product (ODOP) scheme of the State Government has yielded in exports worth `1.16 lakh crore in just one year and the expressways in the eastern region which will serve as engines of growth even as the developmental changes on the ground in Ayodhya is visible.
Elaborating on the employment generation capacity of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, the CM said while initiatives and incentives are afoot to attract big investments in the industrial sectors, the Government is simultaneously focussing on the MSME Sector.
“Every opportunity is being used to promote the ODOP Scheme as it has given a new boom to the MSME Sector and helped in generating more employment. Support from the administration has delivered a very good result. Exports of products under the ODOP Scheme has led to exports worth `1.16 lakh crore in just one year is a testimony of the success of the Scheme,” the CM said while interacting with journalists at his residence here on Sunday, a day after celebration of UP Diwas.
“While support is being given at every level to the MSME sector and linking the ODOP with various schemes of the State and Centre, even a little hand holding acts as a catalyst to the ODOP as people are ready to work for such initiatives and take them forward,” he said.
The ODOP Scheme launched in 2018 involves identification of at least one special product or enterprise endemic to one of the 75 districts in the State and incentivising the production to leverage exports of the handicrafts. In districts where there was no product of speciality, certain products were linked to those districts to bring them under the ambit of the ODOP, he said.
“To attract big investments, the government has to grant big incentives but the bigger level of incentives do not help in generating employment on a large scale. In the case of local products, a small incentive contributes in creating large scale employment and promoting Atma Nirbharta,” he said, adding bigger investments have been attracted successfully but the local products are also being promoted on a big scale.
Unlike the western UP and Awadh (South Central region), the Purvanchal and Bundelkhand regions were left behind on the development map, he said and added the work is underway on the construction of three expressways and another one is being worked out. Industrial corridors along these express ways will help serve these areas as growth engines, he said.
“The age old dispute over Ayodhya, as you all know, has ended completely and not only Ayodhya but entire Uttar Pradesh is relaying the message of peace and amity by linking with the new system of development,” he said.
The works on various infrastructure projects like the expressways, industrial and defence corridors besides the support to the MSME sector and improved law and order have all contributed in a creating constructive approach about the state’s potential to attract investments, he added.