SP Govt cared only for its kin, failed to provide housing: Yogi

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said leaders of the earlier Samajwadi Party Government worked to serve the interests of only their own family and relatives, but for the BJP, the entire 25 crore population of the state is its family.

Speaking at a programme organised to distribute the first instalment under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) 2.0 to 90,000 families, Adityanath said the earlier Government lacked the political will to provide housing benefits to the poor despite schemes announced by the Centre in this regard.

“It was not that the prime minister had not made the announcement, the state Government did not have the will to implement it. When a person immerses in self-interest, his sensitivity dies; he thinks only about himself and his family,” Adityanath said in an apparent reference to former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, but without taking his name.

Alleging nepotism in the earlier regime, he said, “Before 2017, the state Government thought only about itself, about one family and its relatives.” The chief minister said that after the BJP-led Government came to power in 2017, the state's population of around 25 crore became its family and hence, it aims to ensure that the benefits of Government schemes reach every eligible person.

Congratulating the 90,000 families who received the first instalment of Rs 1 lakh each under the scheme, he said owning a house is every person's dream.

The beneficiaries included 10,214 families in Saharanpur, 7,991 in Pratapgarh, 4,325 in Shahjahanpur, 4,266 in Firozabad, 3,174 in Jalaun, 3,078 in Sitapur and 3,063 in Gorakhpur, he said.