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Yogi Adityanath says Uttar Pradesh no longer faces identity crisis, scripting new development story
In Mumbai, chief minister Yogi Adityanath says Uttar Pradesh doesn’t aspire to take Bollywood or any other industry away from Maharashtra, but wants healthy competition
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said Uttar Pradesh that faced a crisis of identity earlier was now scripting a new story of development.
Transforming speedily under his leadership, the state will emerge as one of the progressive ones in the country by achieving the target of becoming a $1trillion economy in the next five years, he said in Mumbai.
He described Uttar Pradesh as “Dharm Pradesh” and Mumbai (Maharashtra) as “Arth Pradesh” as he addressed a gathering of the U.P. diaspora. He is on a two-day Mumbai visit to meet industrialists, investors, bankers and personalities from Bollywood.
Uttar Pradesh did not want to take anything away from Mumbai’s film industry or industrial investment from Maharashtra, but wanted to have healthy competition, said Yogi as he kicked off his tour.
On Thursday, he will meet bankers from the private and public sectors in the morning before a roadshow for the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit 2023 (GIS-23). The GIS is scheduled in Lucknow on February 10-12.
“We want to have healthy competition with other states, including Maharashtra. The Film City we have been building in Uttar Pradesh is on 1000 acres (comparing the Mumbai Film City spread on 500 acres). Our aim is not to take away Bollywood from Mumbai to U.P, but we are inviting the film industry by giving them better facilities. We will have world-class facilities available for the industry to look up to. Renowned studios, from across the globe, such as Universal, are ready to come to us. So, we are not snatching anything from anybody, but it would be a healthy competition between the two,” he said to select media persons on the sidelines of the event.
When asked whether U.P. will achieve its target of becoming a $1trillion economy, the same as Maharashtra, in the next five years, he said development in every sector will help the state in achieving the goal.
Yogi emphasised that an improvement in the law and order situation had changed the perception about Uttar Pradesh. By using its rivers for water transport, U.P. was also changing its perception about being a land-locked state, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would launch a cruise from Varanasi to Dibrugarh in Varanasi on January 13, 2023, he added.
Yogi said the state government has worked out 25 sectoral policies and new Uttar Pradesh of new India was now capable of facing any challenge.
He also said the state government would welcome all the investment proposals. The state government has ensured security of all those who belonged to Uttar Pradesh and the state was full of self-confidence and progressing towards becoming self-reliant now, Yogi Adityanath said.
Uttar Pradesh’s youngsters were no longer hiding their identity and instead introduced themselves with pride, saying they belonged to the state, he asserted.
“There was a time when people of Azamgarh in east U.P. did not get a place to live even in dharamshalas in Mumbai,” he said, adding that an airport was now coming up in the same Azamgarh.
“Today, we have marked development in every field, including infrastructure, industries and have brought tremendous improvement in law and order in the last (nearly) six years. We have 94 lakh MSME units that will drive the development of the state,” he said.
“Prior to 2017, (when the Yogi government came to power) women’s safety was a big issue in U.P. Parents would not send their daughters to schools. We have brought a paradigm shift in the law and order situation. We did not see a single riot in the state in the last six years. Other parts of the country registered communal riots during Ram Navmi, but we did not let it happen in U.P. Industrialists and investors feel safe in the state now,” he said. When asked if he aims to shift to Delhi on the national political platform, the U.P. CM said that he rather wants to go back to Gorakhnath Math in Gorakhpur.
He said the state government had provided over five lakh government jobs in the past five-and-a-half years of his government and no questions have been raised about the process of recruitment. He said the confidence of youngsters in the government had gone up and it was after a gap of 37 years that any government was re-elected with two-thirds majority in Uttar Pradesh (in the 2022 assembly elections).
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, 40 lakh migrants settled in various parts of the country went back to their native places. But no one left U.P. during the pandemic. At the same time, we took care of migrants who returned. We don’t run away from challenges. We face them head-on,” he added.
He also said that Rahul Gandhi does not walk the talk.
“Though he speaks about connecting India as the motive behind his Bharat Jodo Yatra, his act and motive is something else. What he said about China-India border tension was not in the interest of the country,” Adityanath said.
On Thursday, Yogi will interact with representatives of leading corporate houses and associations representing industries during the roadshow. He is scheduled to meet producers and directors from Bollywood in the evening to invite them to explore possibilities in the new Film City being built in UP.
The industry leaders he will interact with include Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, Piramal Enterprises chairman Ajay Piramal, JSW group MD Sajjan Jindal, Torrent Power MD Jinal Mehta, Hiranandani Group CEO Darshan Hiranandani, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, Parle Agro MD Prakash Chauhan, Adani Ports and SEZ Limited CEO Karan Adani and Godrej Industries executive chairman Pirojsha Godrej.
Besides Mumbai (January 4 and 5), the cities where the state government has scheduled the roadshows include Chennai (January 9), New Delhi (January 13), Kolkata (January 17), Hyderabad (January 18), Ahmedabad (January 20) Bengaluru (January 23) and Chandigarh (January 27). The state government’s eight teams have held international roadshows in 21 major cities in 16 countries.
