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CM Yogi for 36-hr debate in Assembly on making U.P. a trillion-dollar economy
He suggested the debate should be held in the same manner as the house debated the Sustainable Development Goals earlier
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said the state legislative assembly should have a 36-hour debate on the issue of making Uttar Pradesh a trillion-dollar economy in five years. He suggested the debate should be held in the same manner as the house debated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) earlier.
“Let there be a 36-hour debate on trillion-dollar economy issue. These people (opposition leaders) did not think it proper to take part in the debate on the SDGs),” said Yogi while replying to the issues that the leaders of opposition parties had raised during the three-day debate on drought, floods and other issues concerning the farmers in the state legislative assembly here on Friday.
“In all, 33 members have taken part in the debate,” he said. Yogi said the state’s economy had doubled in the past five years and the state’s youth no longer faced the crisis of identity as the perception about Uttar Pradesh had now changed.
As Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav had targeted the Yogi government on how the “Saand” (a male animal of cow family) was worshipped as the mount of Lord Shiva, Yogi used the occasion to refer to strained relations that the Samajwadi Party has had with his uncle and SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav (who has merged his Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party with the SP now) and said it appears that the SP chief appears to have not done his homework properly. He asked Shivpal Singh Yadav to use his experience and teach some lessons in politics to Akhilesh Yadav.
The CM said encephalitis claimed the lives of 50,000 children in eastern Uttar Pradesh over a span of 40 years. He said the SP had the opportunity to govern the state four times. He said 90 percent of the deceased children came from Dalits, minorities and the most backward castes. “Was there no ‘PDA’ (Pichre, Dalit and Alpashankhak) there,” he asked.
Yogi said his government had now worked hard and no cases of encephalitis were there now in Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Deoria, Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Bahraich, Balrampur, Shravasti, Gonda, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur and Saharanpur districts.
“This is the first government to take two important steps in the interest of ‘Annadata’ farmers. In our first term, we worked to bring man-animal conflict into the category of a disaster,” the CM said. He said 55 lakh people had been benefited from the PM Awas Yojana. “Are they not part of the ‘PDA’,” the CM asked.
He said the state government had provided 50 percent discount to farmers on electricity bills. “You did nothing and didn’t even want to do anything. For the year 2023-24, we are separating feeders. A budget of ₹1500 crore has been allocated for this purpose, allowing us to provide free electricity to farmers who install private tube-wells,” said Yogi.
He said his government brought down the transmission losses. He said the line losses were around 22 percent before 2017 and had now come down to 17 percent.
Yogi said a capacity of 4,839 MW power was added in the state between 2012 and 2017 while 5,820 MW had been added and 1,600 MW Obra Thermal project had also been undertaken to add to the capacity.
About the SP chief’s claims about assistance from the chief minister’s discretionary fund, he said a sum of ₹552 crore was distributed from the fund between 2012 and 2017 but ₹2,325 crore had been used now.
He said efforts had been made to meet the target of plantations of saplings. He said according to report of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, an increase of 80 thousand hectares had been registered in the total forest cover in the state. He said 131.98 crore saplings were planted, resulting in a carbon absorption of 64 lakh metric tonnes.
“By the time U.P. becomes a one trillion-dollar economy, we will increase the forest cover from 9 to 15 percent,” he said.
Giving statistics about compensation to farmers, Yogi said the state government had already provided compensation to the affected farmers this year. He said during his visit to Sitapur and Lakhimpur in 2017 to meet flood-affected individuals, he was disheartened to learn that they were provided with nothing more than “dry bread.”
He said there was no relief or compensation. He said he held a meeting with the officers and decided to give a relief kit to the affected. The CM said arrangements were made to provide 10 kg of rice, 10 kg of flour, 10 kg of potatoes, lentils, salt, matchsticks, spices, and kerosene etc in the kit.
