Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said that investment opportunities had increased in Uttar Pradesh because of improvement in infrastructure and improved law and order and as a result the government was targeting to generate at least 20 lakh jobs in the next five years.
The Chief Minister was speaking at UP Diwas function in Lucknow on Thursday.
“Uttar Pradesh is out of the mire of indecisiveness. Law of the land has been restored with an iron fist and infrastructure has improved. Investors are now willing to invest in the state,” he said.
Yogi said the biggest achievement of his government was to preserve local craft. “My government has provided local artisans a ready-made market as well as finance to improve their skills through One District One Project (ODOP) scheme,” he said.
“Through ODOP, artisans are getting employment at their door steps thereby stemming exodus to bigger cities in search of jobs. Recently, ODOP exhibition was held in Varanasi and it drew good response. This government is committed to developing UP as ‘danga-mukt, rozgar-yukt (free of riots and full of employment),” he said .
On the occasion, the government felicitated 1,500 artisans with Vishwakarma Samman. Earlier, the government had launched Vishwakarma Shram Samman Yojana under which youths were imparted training in traditional occupation like carpentry, tailoring, blacksmith, goldsmith, pottery work and even running sweat meat shops.
“In this scenario where investors are willing to invest in UP and local artisans are being provided help at doorstep, the government aims to generate over 20 lakh jobs in the next five years,” the Chief Minister said.
Yogi said that he had asked the Chief Secretary to fill vacancies of sports quota in every department.
“The scheme of ‘Khelo India’ would be implemented across the state and Yuvak Mangal Dal would be set up in every village,” he said.
The Chief Minister also announced a cash reward of Rs 11 lakh for amputee mountaineer Arunima Sinha.
In his address, Governor Ram Naik said that there had been improvement in law and order in the last 18 months due to which investors had shown willingness to invest in UP.
He said that earlier power outages were quite frequent and it had been effectively harnessed.
Talking about Uttar Pradesh Diwas, the Governor said that when he assumed office in Lucknow, he was told that the state did not celebrate a day of its own.
“I suggested to then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to celebrate UP Diwas but probably due to his tight schedule, he could not implement it. Now, Yogiji has accepted my request and we celebrate UP Diwas on January 24,” Naik said.