As the state assembly election in India’s most populous state of the Uttar Pradesh hots up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (November 16) launched a scathing attack on opposition parties and said, the previous governments in Uttar Pradesh had turned the state’s vital eastern part to ‘mafiawaad’ and ‘poverty’.
Modi said that it was due to the hard work of the BJP government that a new chapter of development is being written in the state led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
He also said that the development under previous chief ministers was limited to only places where they had homes and families, but the present administration ensured infrastructure development reached all parts of the state and particularly the long-ignored Purvanchal region.
The Prime Minister was addressing a rally in Sultanpur after inaugurating the 341-km strategically and logistically important Purvanchal Expressway.
The expressway links the state capital Lucknow with Ghazipur and has been constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 22,500 crore.
PM said that development under previous chief ministers was limited to places where they had homes and families, but the present regime is giving fruits of developments to the eastern region as good as to the western part of Uttar Pradesh.
The PM said the six-lane expressway will now serve as the lifeline of the eastern region of UP and will yield prosperity and economic development of the region and the state.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi had landed on the Purvanchal Expressway airstrip in an IAF C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and was received by Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
A 3.2-km airstrip has been constructed on the expressway to facilitate the emergency landing of fighter aircraft and heavy-lift transport planes.
A statement from the PM office reads, “The Prime Minister noted that for industrial development of Uttar Pradesh, excellent connectivity is necessary, every corner of UP needs to be connected. He said as expressways are getting ready in UP, the work of the industrial corridor has also started. Very soon new industries will start coming up around Purvanchal Expressway,”.
“In the coming days, in the cities situated along these expressways, work on products related to food processing, milk, cold storage, storage of fruits and vegetables, cereal, animal husbandry and other agricultural products are going to increase rapidly. He said skilled manpower is essential to the industrialization of UP. So work has also been started to train the manpower. ITI and other training institutes and medical institutes will also be established in these cities,” the statement said.
“He said that this expressway will connect those cities with immense aspiration and huge potential for development with Lucknow. He said where the good road leads, good highways reach, there the pace of development increases, job creation happens faster,” the statement added.
“The Prime Minister lauded the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath, his team and the people of UP on the completion of Purvanchal Expressway. He also thanked the farmers whose land was acquired for this project,” the statement added.
“The Prime Minister remarked that security of the country is equally important as the prosperity of the country. He said that keeping that in mind, emergency landing provision for fighter jets is made while constructing the Purvanchal Expressway,” the statement said.
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