Four years ago, Yogi Adityanath took oath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, following the Bharatiya Janata Party winning election by three-quarters Assembly seats. Thus began a new era of development after years of lawlessness, chaos, and corruption in the country’s largest state.
Unlike the previous governments, which mainly focused on main cities and family fiefdoms, the regime has stressed on comprehensive development in a bid to create opportunities, improve self-reliance, reduce migration, and elevate social indicators. Some of the major initiatives are:
The Adityanath government launched the Mission Shakti programme in October 2020 for the security of women. The launch was attended by several young girls who demonstrated techniques for self-defence at the event. Speaking at the event, the CM said that he decided to kick off the campaign from Balrampur in order to pay homage to a “victim of a very unfortunate incident.” He added that Mission Shakti has been started with the hope of guaranteeing respect and safety to every woman of UP.
While Mission Shakti was launched for the safety and dignity of women and girls, the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Scheme is being implemented to spread awareness among females irrespective of their backgrounds.
Further, 1.52 lakh marriages were performed free of cost by the government under the Mukhyamantri Samuhik Vivah Yojana for the poor. Kanya Sumangala Yojana is also aimed at female empowerment.
More than 40 lakh houses have been built and handed over to the needy in both urban and rural areas under the Chief Minister Awas Yojana and the Prime Minister Awas Yojana. Moreover, 2.61 Cr toilets have been built.
The government has done a lot in the health sector. 30 new medical colleges are underway, as compared to 12 medical colleges till 2016. The UP government now has AIIMS in Gorakhpur and Raibareilly.
Under the Mukhya Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan, a sub-scheme of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), Rs 142 crore was allocated in the annual budget 2021-22. Mukhyamantri Arogya Melas are continually organized at every primary health centre to sensitize families and improve overall levels of health in the state. In the last two months, lakhs of people have received free facilities in these melas. In the wake of the corona crisis, the state has also installed thermal analyzers and kicked off public awareness campaigns to deal with the unprecedented crisis.
Japanese encephalitis is a dreaded ailment which has afflicted Uttar Pradesh for long. For almost four decades, eastern UP has been the epicenter of encephalitis with the fatality rate of as high as 20-30 per cent. The epidemic-type disease, which broke out in 1978 in about 38 districts, was either ignored or brushed under the carpet by successive governments but not by the Adityanath government. It focused on the deadly disease which claimed up to 600 deaths a year. The UP government has achieved 95 per cent success in eradicating encephalitis and, as per reports, the killer disease may be eradicated by end of 2021.
It may be recalled that the issue of encephalitis was raised by Yogi Adityanath in Lok Sabha for the first time in 1998. When he became UP CM in 2017, he put extra focus and thrust in containing its outbreak which happens every year between June-October. Since 2018, encephalitis cases have decreased continuously. This was recently observed and appreciated by the World Health Organization.
The state government has launched schemes like One District, One Product which have generated more than 25 lakh jobs. Metro rail has been incorporated in 10 cities; in two cities, Agra and Kanpur, construction is underway. The government is carrying out large infrastructure projects in the state. Purvanchal Expressway, Ganga Expressway, Gorakhpur-link Expressway, Baliya-link Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway will give a big boost to infrastructure.
Two-thirds of UP’s population is engaged in agro-based activities. In line with the PM’s vision to double farmers’ income by 2022, soil health cards were issued to four crore farmers. Subsidy for the purchase of agro-based equipment was discharged through direct benefit transfer or DBT. Moreover, in order to train farmers with modern techniques, the Million Farmers; Schools were started at the Nyaya Panchayat level. Twenty new Krishi Vigyan Kendras will be established in the state.
Sugarcane farmers suffered in the past because of climatic conditions and cronyism. With a record payment of Rs 1.25 lakh crore to the farmers and expansion of capacity of 20 sugar mills in the state, the perpetually sick industry too witnessed policy intervention and redress of farmer grievances. Further, UP is now the only state that has sugar cane mills running with proper Covid-19 norms and precautions even during the lockdown. This was in sharp contrast to Maharashtra where mills were shut down during the lockdown.
Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated for the international airport at Ayodhya. In a bid to develop a spiritual tourism circuit exclusively for Uttar Pradesh, connectivity to Ayodhya assumes importance. With six runways, the Jewar Airport will boost regional connectivity and develop the area. This has created opportunities in the hospitality and travel sectors. DefExpo-2020, which saw participation from 70 countries, aims to attract investment for defense manufacturing in the state. There is a proposal of a Rs 20,000-crore multi-nodal defence corridor by PM at Investor’s Summit held in Lucknow.
More than four lakh youths were given government jobs in the last four years.
The state government successfully organized Kumbh in 2019 at Prayagraj. There were also such events as Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, Investor Summit and the Defense Expo.
Chief Minister Adityanath converted challenges into opportunity during the Covid-19 pandemic, when migrant laborers headed back to UP from different parts of the country. He generated jobs for the workers by attracting various MNCs to invest and set up their manufacturing units in the state. In order to attract MNCs, he implemented 186 reforms; one of the major reforms was the digital single-window portal Nivesh Mitra providing 166 services to entrepreneurs.
With a 93 per cent NoC application disposal rate, the Nivesh Mitra portal has achieved the query resolution rate of 98 per cent. The Yogi Government is also planning to hold ‘Rozgar Mela’ (job fair). These fairs has been started to ensure that engineering and management students from both private and government colleges of the state get jobs.
Beside free WiFi on college campuses, the government will set up free e-libraries to keep students abreast of the latest developments. Among other steps to be taken in the education sector, the infrastructure of polytechnic institutes will be bolstered and all their students will be provided hostel facilities. The state government has developed Yuva Hub for Employment for youths and for that more than Rs 1,200 crore have been allocated in budget.
Owing to economic reforms, UP has achieved the 2nd spot in the country in terms of ease of doing business; only Andhra Pradesh is ahead of UP. It was a staggering 10-spot jump for UP.
UP’s willingness to achieve excellence in various fields can be seen very clearly over the past few years. As the state takes up the challenge to grow into a $1-trillion economy, investment-led growth is imperative. The Adityanath government is committed to that.