E-Paper
PM Modi to launch ₹6300 crore projects in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh
₹400 crore unit for propulsion system of anti-tank guided missiles under the UP defence corridor in Jhansi is part of the projects that would be launched
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate and launch several projects worth ₹6300 crore in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh on Friday. The day would also mark the birth anniversary of Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi.
The PM, along with defence minister Rajnath Singh, will launch several key initiatives centred on the supply of piped water and employment in defence units in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor at Rashtra Raksha Samarpan Parv, which is being held in Jhansi from November 17-19 as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. The defence minister had inaugurated the event on Wednesday.
The PM’s visit is expected to boost the BJP campaign for the 2022 assembly polls in one of the most backward regions of Uttar Pradesh.
In Jhansi, PM would lay the foundation of ₹ 400 crore plant for the propulsion system of anti-tank guided missiles. Bharat Dynamics Limited is setting up the unit as part of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor Project.
In addition, he would hand over indigenously designed and developed equipment to the armed forces.
The light combat helicopter developed by HAL would be handed over to IAF chief. He would also hand over the drones developed by Indian start-ups to army and electronic warfare suits to the navy.
The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor has nodes at Agra, Aligarh, Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Lucknow and Kanpur.
The prime minster would also launch the National Cadet Corps Alumni Association of which he would be the first member. He would launch 100 new co- educational Sainik Schools as well. These will be developed with help of the private sector over the next two years.
Completed at a cost of ₹2600 crore in Mahoba, the Arjun Sahayak project is the biggest project that the PM would dedicate to the people on Friday. This project on the Dhasan river would provide irrigation facilities to 1.5 lakh farmers in 168 villages of Banda, Hamirpur and Mahoba.
About four lakh people would get water and irrigation would be provided to an area of 15000 hectares. The irrigation capacity under this project would later be expanded to 44,382 hectares, according to a government statement.
This is considered one of the state government’s flagship projects which chief minister Yogi Adityanath has personally monitored.
The BJP had swept the 2017 assembly elections in Bundelkhand and won all the 19 seats in the region. The party bagged 47 of the 52 seats in the Kanpur-Bundelkhand region then.
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is the party’s election in-charge in UP, has held meetings recently to finalise the strategy for the region of ahead of the polls.
Apart from being the centre of politics of BSP founder Kanshi Ram, Bundelkhand has been a BJP stronghold too.
After the demolition of the Babri Mosque on December 6, 1992, regional political players like the Samajwadi Party and the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) upstaged the BJP to capture the Bundelkhand political landscape. But the party bounced back strongly in 2014. Since then, it has swept two Lok Sabha polls (2014 and 2019) and one assembly election (2017).
Bundelkhand has a significant population of non- Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits, who voted for the BJP in these elections. Dalits account for about 30% of the population in Bundelkhand and Muslims 7%.
