With the Yogi Adityanath government set to complete three years in office on Thursday, the cornavirus threat has forced the government to shelve the razzmatazz and settle for a sombre celebration.
A senior government official told The Pioneer on Tuesday that all official functions have been put on hold owing to government directives on not organising any social functions.
Yogi Adityanath took the oath of office on March 19, 2017. Eyebrows were raised as the parliamentarian, Mahant from Gorakhnath Mutt clad in saffron, was sworn in as Chief Minister of this politically sensitive state. But three years down the line, Yogi has proved his doubters wrong.
Not only did he streamline government functioning, he also made bureaucrats slog. Meetings were held to remove cobweb of indecisions so that benefits of government schemes could reach the masses. All sectors moved ahead in unision. Be it crime control, education, health, agriculture et al, projects were thrashed out and budgets were sanctioned for speedy implementation.
“I want implementation of projects of Central and state governments. Effective implementation of schemes will ensure that benefits reached identified sections effectively transparently,” Yogi said during one of his meetings with bureaucrats recently.
The feather in the cap for the Yogi government was the successful implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana under which three crore houses have been constructed for the deprived and poor people in rural areas and more than 30 lakh houses in urban areas.
Under Saubhagya scheme, Uttar Pradesh ranks first in the country by providing free power connection to more than 1.24 crore households. Under Ujala scheme, 2.60 crore LED bulbs have been distributed. The last three years have seen improvement in terms of crime control. Aiming to better law and order, police commissionerate system was implemented in Lucknow and Noida.
“The biggest achievement for UP was that the Punjab and Haryana High Court made special mention of better law and order in Uttar Pradesh during one of its observations,” said Shalabh Mani Tripathi, media advisor to the Chief Minister.
The result of ‘zero tolerance policy’ on law and order was that organised crime plummeted in 2019 as compared to 2016. All major festivals, religious processions, fairs were organised successfully.
“A provision of Rs 20 crore was made for setting up Uttar Pradesh Police Forensic University. Besides, 75 anti-power theft police stations, four women police stations, and four economic offences police stations were also set up to control crime,” Tripathi said.
Government’s achievements in irrigation sector surprised many. The state government completed eight projects, including Baan Sagar, Pahari Dam, Patharai Dam, Jamrar Dam, Maudha Dam, Pahuj Dam, Lahchura Dam, and Gunta Dam, which had been pending for 46 years. With the completion of these projects, irrigation capacity was increased to 2.16 lakh hectares.
Through single-window system ‘Nivesh Mitra’, aimed at facilitating setting up of industries in the state, 70 services of 20 departments were being made available online to investors. Government issued 97,849 NOCs to entrepreneurs through the ‘Nivesh Mitra’ portal.
The state government implemented the new Industrial Policy and made 21 new investment-friendly policies. MoUs worth Rs 4.68 lakh were signed for investment in Investors Summit in Lucknow in February 2018. Through the first and second ground-breaking ceremonies, 371 projects with investments of Rs 2 lakh crore were implemented and about 5 lakh people were employed.
UP will be boosted with the foundation of Defence Industrial Manufacturing Corridor in Bundelkhand. This corridor, to be built with an investment of 50 thousand crore rupees, will create employment of 5 lakh people.
The government realised what entrepreneurs needed and hence it started spreading network of quality roads across the state and repairing the old ones. Power supply was improved and now quality electricity is available across the state.
To boost industrial development of eastern Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal), a 341-km-long Purvanchal Expressway is under construction from the state’s financial resources. A decision was taken to construct a 91-km-long Gorakhpur Link Expressway to link Gorakhpur with Purvanchal Expressway.
Similarly, construction of 296-km-long Bundelkhand Expressway is also on the anvil. Another Ganga Expressway is on the cards to link west UP (Meerut) with eastern part of the state (Prayagraj). This expressway will pass through Meerut, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Prayagraj districts.
The high point of Yogi’s three-year rule has been the way he fulfilled promises made by the BHP to people. A record purchase of 52.92 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was made from 11,27,195 farmers under price support and online payment of Rs 9231.99 crore was made within 72 hours.
UP is the first state where maximum number of farmers (approximately 28 lakh) benefited from Prime Minister Kisan Samman Yojana. Besides, many closed and sick sugar mills were revived and in one year, the government carried out record purchase of sugar cane.
These achievements ended in national awards as UP Government bagged 12 for the first time for successful execution of schemes implemented by Union Ministry of Rural Development.
From its second year, the government started marching on the path of progress. “We are working in a transparent manner. We have given appointment in state sector to over 2.50 lakh people and after industrial units start operation, employment to 35 lakh people will be given,” the Chief Minister recently said at a private programme.