Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reiterated his resolve to make Uttar Pradesh a $1 trillion economy in the next five years at the seventh meeting of NITI Aayog held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.
Yogi Adityanath not only enumerated the development works carried out by his government in UP in the last five years but also presented the outline of his plans for the future of the state.
The chief minister said that the state government was working in a planned manner to achieve this challenging goal, adding that the focus was also on making UP’s infrastructure world-class and strong.
“Good and effective governance, skill development, rapid decision-making process and targeted policies and rules are proving useful in this direction,” he said.
Speaking specifically on his government’s plans for farmers, Yogi Adityanath said that work was underway to strengthen the digital agricultural framework to ensure that the benefits of the government’s schemes reached the farmers of the state.
He further pointed out that as many as three crore farmers were registered under the Digitised Farmers Database in Uttar Pradesh, and they had received Rs 2,605 crore in the last five years under various schemes.
“Uttar Pradesh is the leading state in the country in terms of distribution of grants through DBT (direct benefit transfer) by developing a digitised database for farmers,” the chief minister said.
Yogi Adityanath said that 'Centres of Excellence' had been established in the state for specific agricultural products. He said the government had also started extensive preparations to celebrate 'International Year of Millets' by the United Nations in the year 2023. Besides, he said, intercropping with jowar, bajra and sugarcane was being promoted to enhance the income of farmers.
He said that the state government was taking phase-wise action to promote natural farming. “For example, the scheme of cow-based farming has been approved in seven districts of Bundelkhand region. A target has also been set to practice cow-based farming on 500 hectares in each development block of the seven districts of the region,” he said.
“Besides, under the Namami Gange scheme, cow-based farming is proposed in 105 development blocks along the banks of the river Ganga,” he said.
The chief minister remarked: “To make Uttar Pradesh an Rs 80 lakh crore (one trillion dollar) economy by 2025, our cities will have to come forward as a growth engine by attracting investments and increasing employment generation. Urban development has to be a growth engine as well as address the challenges of housing/slum, water supply and solid waste management, air quality/pollution, livelihood and public transport. Uttar Pradesh is doing effective work in the field of municipal finance, town planning and administrative structure and citizen-centred administration, as suggested in the field of urban development at the national conference.”
Yogi Adityanath further said that the work of GIS survey in 16 municipal corporations was in progress to improve the financial condition of the municipal bodies, due to which doubling of house tax was possible by the end of this financial year. He said work was also underway to rationalise different types of user charges.
The chief minister said that municipal bonds worth Rs. 200 crore had been issued in Lucknow and Rs 150 crore in Ghaziabad. “This amount is being used for the construction of residential complexes and STPs (sewage treatment plants), which will also generate revenue in future. The goal is to have partnership with international finance agencies and the formation of Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation, which will also generate employment and encourage investment in small local bodies,” he said.
The UP chief minister said that the National Education Policy-2020 was the biggest campaign for comprehensive reforms in the field of education after independence. He said this policy was the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Education Policy laid emphasis on improving the talents of children and making them efficient and confident. He said special efforts had been made by the state government for the development of basic infrastructure in the schools. He said that the government had started transfer of Rs 1,200 each to the bank accounts of parents of 1.91 crore students studying from Class 1 to 8 in state government schools for the purchase of uniforms, sweaters, schoolbags, shoes and socks, and stationery.
Yogi Adityanath added that 5,000 model schools were being developed in the state under 'Operation Kayakalp Phase-II'. “Besides setting up of 2,500 smart classes in government secondary schools, e-mails of one crore secondary students have been developed and Wi-Fi facility has been made available in 2,273 schools,” he said.
The chief minister said that like aspirational districts, it had been decided to select 100 aspirational development blocks in the state and develop them to the prescribed standards. “In all, 100 researchers will be selected for aspirational development blocks through the Chief Minister's Fellowship Programme. With the implementation of this scheme, youth will get a special opportunity to participate in policy-making, management and implementation etc, while the blocks will benefit from the new, innovative approaches of the youth,” he said.