VARANASI Chief minister Yogi Adityanath took his campaign for the civic polls to gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s home district Mau on Wednesday, saying that those who crippled law and order in the area were themselves moving in wheelchairs now.
Ansari, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a 2007 Gangster Act case by a court last week, was seen being moved in a wheelchair once before being brought to a jail in Uttar Pradesh from Punjab.
“This is the same district where Ramleela could not be organised, and where the SP and the BSP allowed professional criminals and mafia to create chaos during their regimes. But law and order has improved tremendously since the double-engine government assumed power in Uttar Pradesh,” he said while seeking votes for BJP candidates at election rallies in Mau and Azamgarh.
He appealed to people to vote for BJP candidates in order to add the third engine to the double engine government to ensure the best use of funds allocated by the central and state government.
Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, he said, “We all know the situation inside the country nine years ago. Indians were looked at with suspicion wherever they went. India had lost its credibility. Under PM Modi’s leadership we have witnessed the changing India. India’s global prestige has gone up. Modiji is known as ‘Sankat Mochan’ (trouble-shooter). We have brought back our citizens safe from the crisis-ridden Sudan. A total of 431 people from UP have been brought back so far from the country that includes people from Azamgarh also.”
{{/usCountry}}Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, he said, “We all know the situation inside the country nine years ago. Indians were looked at with suspicion wherever they went. India had lost its credibility. Under PM Modi’s leadership we have witnessed the changing India. India’s global prestige has gone up. Modiji is known as ‘Sankat Mochan’ (trouble-shooter). We have brought back our citizens safe from the crisis-ridden Sudan. A total of 431 people from UP have been brought back so far from the country that includes people from Azamgarh also.”
{{/usCountry}}Lambasting the SP and BSP governments “for turning Ballia — the land of revolutions - into a land of curfew,” the CM said, “Instead of giving a pen in the hands of the youth, ‘licences’ were distributed to turn them into rioters and create chaos.”
Emphasising that unlike the opposition governments, the double engine government believed in the progress of all sections of society, the CM said, “It is because of this, that UP has got investment proposals of ₹35 lakh crore, which will create employment opportunities for 1 crore people.”
“Some people gave kattas (countrymade pistols) instead of pens to the youth, and we are giving them tablets. Times have changed and we are taking the youth from sword to pen. We are making them skilled by connecting them with technology,” added Adityanath.
“The money that comes for construction of houses and toilets should go directly into the poor’s account. Under the Ujjwala Yojana, the poor must receive a cooking gas connection while a health insurance cover worth ₹5 lakh and a connection for clean drinking water should also be provided to the poor. The municipal board, which is going to be elected, will make all these arrangements,” said the CM.
Pointing out the situation before 2017, the CM said, “At that time, there was terror of miscreants in our cities and women were not safe while piles of filth were visible in urban areas. Now, our cities are seen as smart cities. There is no terror of criminals, and cities are being developed into safe cities. Instead of ‘tamancha,’ the youth are holding a tablet.”
Listing out development works, the CM emphasised that the double-engine government had run many programmes in Mau. “Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (urban), 17,655 houses were approved in Mau district alone. Under the PM SVANidhi Yojana, the work of giving interest-free loans to 8,930 street vendors was done. The double engine government is giving benefit of ₹12,000 annual pension facility to 12,407 destitute women, 11,809 differently-abled people (divyangjans), and 12,633 elderly citizens.”
With ₹27 crore, the work of providing pure drinking water to 37,000 families under the Har Ghar Nal Yojana has also been done, he added.
“Until 2017, Azamgarh was struggling for its identity. Its people did not even get rooms in hotels and dharamshalas in other cities. But, today Azamgarh has been linked with Purvanchal Express. An airport is being built here and now a university in the name of Maharaj Suheldev has also been started,” he remarked.
He said that for the first time, an artiste had become a Member of Parliament from Azamgarh, referring to film actor-turned-politician Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’, and added that Hariharpur Sangeet Mahavidyalaya had, therefore, been established here.