Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath dedicated to people 10 development projects worth Rs 197.21 crore, including the new Carpet Expo Mart in Bhadohi, on Thursday.
This mart will be an international world-class complex that will provide all possible assistance to ensure that the carpet industry of Bhadohi scales to a new high.
Apart from this, he also laid the foundation stones of five projects and gave the benefits of several Central and state government schemes to about 750 beneficiaries.
The CM also held a meeting with the MPs, MLAs and leaders of Vindhyachal division.
In his address, the CM assured the weavers and artisans of full support from the government. He hailed the mastery of artisans in manufacturing carpet in Bhadohi and said that the carpet exports from only Bhadohi district were around Rs 4,000 crore.
“Eighty per cent of the carpet export of the country is from Bhadohi. The new mart will accelerate the intrinsic art and many decade-old craftsmanship of Bhadohi with new technology and ideation under one roof. This will also ease the process of business for the artisans by creating a market space for buyers and sellers under the same umbrella,” the CM said.
Being a part of the ambitious ODOP scheme of the UP government, the carpets of Bhadohi, along with other products like the silk sarees of Varanasi, the black rice of Chandauli, the kala namak rice of Siddharthnagar, the terracotta of Gorakhpur, the wooden art of Saharanpur and other products of the ODOP scheme have given a new identity of Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he added.
“There are immense opportunities in the state and the government is committed to stand with the local artisans and provide them all assistance like ‘protsahan rashi’ under the ODOP scheme, PM Swarojgar Yojana, providing assistance in getting bank loans, etc. During the coronavirus pandemic also, over Rs 30,000 crore was provided as loans to the MSMEs which have also been helpful in providing jobs to our migrant labourers,” CM Yogi said.
Taking a jibe at the opposition, the CM said that the poor, the farmers, the women and the youth were never on the agenda of the previous governments.
“From 1947 to 2014, only caste and religion was on the agenda.... Woh desh ko majboot nahi, majboor banana chahte the.... But after 2014, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country is prospering and is becoming atmanirbhar. The country also strongly fought with determination against coronavirus and India has now emerged as a new country,” Yogi said.
“Why did the poor and our countrymen not get benefits of toilets, electricity connection, Ayushman Bharat, etc? Why were our farmers not getting the minimum support price (MSP) and the PM Kisan Nidhi, etc? It is because they were never on the agenda of the previous governments.” Yogi said.
He said earlier, India was tagged as a follower but now it was leading from the front and the world was now looking at it as a leader, Yogi asserted.
Apart from Bhadohi Carpet Mart, the CM also dedicated projects like state veterinary hospital, homeopathic hospital and bus stand at Aurai; cow protection home at Vadakhas; warehouse, drinking water project at Kaida among many others.
Speaking on the occasion, Industry Minister Sidharth Nath Singh praised the PM for giving the call of ‘vocal for local’ to help the country achieve a five-trillion dollar economy.
The function was also attended by Bhadohi MP Ramesh Chand Bind, MLA Ravindra Nath Tripathi and others.