We’ve made a friendly atmosphere to bring investments to UP: Yogi Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

New Delhi: A month left for his government to complete one year in office, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is confident that his state will attract large investments thanks to its push on the policy front and the state’s advantages in terms of demography and farm output. The government will be holding the Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit from 21-22 February. In an interview, Adityanath spoke of employment generation, infrastructure development, betterment of farmers, and other sections of the population. Edited excerpts:

The state government is about to complete its first year in office. What is your assessment?

Our government has completed 10 months in office and this is the 11th month, and in the last 10 months, we have tried to understand what are the requirements of Uttar Pradesh, what steps are needed so that Uttar Pradesh becomes part of the list of developed states in the country, how to generate employment, we have discussed these issues in detail. As a result of these discussions, we have come up with the plan of ‘one district, one product’ and the next step in this direction is the Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit. Uttar Pradesh has endless possibilities. I am surprised that even after abundance of natural resources in Uttar Pradesh, in the last 15 years we witnessed political anarchy, law and order problems, and corruption in the state. This has damaged the image of Uttar Pradesh both in the country and in the world.

I used to be surprised initially when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) president Amit Shah asked me to become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, we decided to speak to bankers and top CEOs of various banks. I used to be surprised that people were not even ready to speak to us, they used to avoid taking our calls. Nobody wanted to come to Uttar Pradesh.

When we implemented the farm loan waiver of farmers, nobody was ready to cooperate with us. Then I had a meeting with the principal secretary, finance and told him that all funds would be generated from Uttar Pradesh. And if we have funds, then people will come to us or else nobody will come to Uttar Pradesh. We had a three-hour-long meeting. We decided to stop all unnecessary expenditure, all programmes which were unnecessary and didn’t result in development or didn’t benefit the people of the state were stopped, and we stopped leakages. We immediately got Rs36,000 crore. We immediately implemented the farm loan waiver promised to the farmers. That is when people realised that Uttar Pradesh has an inherent strength and people are ready to come to Uttar Pradesh.

How difficult was it to prepare for investor summit?

The environment in the state has changed, people no longer fear red-tapism, investments will not suffer, no criminal or mafia, anti-social and anti-national cannot operate in Uttar Pradesh. We are the first state which made changes in the labour laws, we have made a friendly atmosphere to bring investments in the state. The result is in front of us. In the past 10 months, we have decided 14-15 policies for different sectors, especially policy for industrial and employment generation, food processing, MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), aviation policy, handloom, power loom, textile and garment sector policy, information technology, electronic manufacturing, film sector, tourism, renewable energy, all these policies are ready and the remaining policies like pharma, will be implemented in the next few days. We are also coming up with a policy for the defence sector. We are taking this forward.

We are creating a land bank. It is the same Uttar Pradesh where only four districts used to get power but now all districts have power, we have sufficient power and it is being distributed without any biases. We have ensured law and order situation has improved. We have conducted several road shows for investment summit, people have become confident that Uttar Pradesh is on the right path and an investment-friendly environment is present in Uttar Pradesh. Over 8,000 people have already registered themselves for investor summit, more than 700 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) are ready, Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) will be coming for the inauguration and President (Ram Nath Kovind) will be coming for the closing ceremony. Six partner countries are also coming.

This year, Uttar Pradesh is organizing an investor summit and in the next one year, the state will organize a global summit; can you elaborate on the plan?

Our focus is that those who take part in the investor summit, MoUs that are signed are implemented and then Global Investor Summit would be organized next year. We are already working in this direction. Our entire team is working on this, the team which is part of the investor summit will be divided into two different teams. The first team will work for the ‘one district, one product’ plan of the government to strengthen the traditional work in Uttar Pradesh and the second team will ensure that the MoUs signed with industrialists, the chief secretary, secretary and principal secretary will implement these MoUs and they would be made accountable for the work completed. Accountability of the work done will be maintained so that there are no glitches.

What is your vision for the state, what will be legacy of your government?

We want to make Uttar Pradesh the most developed state in the country and also generate employment so that the youth of the state which migrates to different states and the state doesn’t benefit from the knowledge and expertise of these people, we want to channelize the youth so that the state benefits from them and help Uttar Pradesh become a developed state.

The state government is coming up with a health policy and there is a plan to improve the education sector, how are you moving forward?

We are working on all the sectors, it is not that we are only working in the education sector. We are going to make structural changes in the education sector. From this April, we will implement NCERT in basic education and CBSE pattern will be implemented in middle schools. We want to ensure that exams are held on time, and the fear of exam should no longer be there. Prime Minister has written a book for students to help them in exams, we want our students to read the book so they learn how to tackle the fear of exams. We have made policies for all the sectors and we are moving in that direction.

What were the focus areas of your government in the last 10 months?

Our development initiatives focus on farmers, youth, women and villages, in the first phase of our development work. The development work is progressing. This is the first government which in the last 10 months has managed to transfer Rs80,000 crore to the accounts of farmers through direct benefit transfer (DBT). We have implemented the farm loan waiver, we have also paid Rs25,000 crore to sugarcane farmers which was due to them, and this time, we have already paid Rs12,000 crore to them. Another Rs6,000 crore has been paid to farmers for procurement of wheat. We have also paid Rs6,200 crore for paddy procurement. Even if we leave aside other subsidies like seeds, 20,000 solar pumps, and drip irrigation, we have still transferred a substantial amount to the accounts of the farmers.

Skill development is being promoted for youth through vocational education, we have enrolled 6 lakh youth, out of which 2.5 lakh youth have completed their course and 1.4 lakh have been given placement, including boys and girls. These people are now earning between Rs15,000-40,000 per month easily. We have also started a programme for start-ups.

The state government is planning to start Metro services in Agra, Kanpur and Meerut by 2024. Airports are being developed in various cities, especially international airport at Jewar near Delhi. There is focus on infrastructure development. How difficult is the task?

Now, we want to focus on infrastructure. When we came to power in Uttar Pradesh, in the last nine months alone, we have managed to provide houses to poor in both rural and urban areas, electrification work is being undertaken in a big way, and 25 lakh poor families have been given free electricity connections which has reduced our line loss.

But we want that the development work should be now visible in Uttar Pradesh. We want to develop the Poorvanchal Expressway which will the longest in the country with 341km. Our work is in the final stages and we are trying that by March-April 2019, the prime minister would be invited for the project. We have already acquired 88% land for the project and the bid process is in the final stages. We want to develop both sides of the road as industrial zone. It will go from Lucknow to Ghazipur, Varanasi, and Balia before it connects to Bihar. This road will also connect Gorakhpur, Ayodhya and Allahabad.

Another major initiative is the Bundelkhand Expressway. It will link Agra to Chitrakoot, and one road will also link Jhansi. This is another expressway which is being developed as a defence corridor. Our estimate suggests that this project will generate investment up to Rs.1 lakh crore and we have started working in this direction.

The international airport at Jewar is being prepared and the work is going on. Uttar Pradesh has many possibilities, the maximum number of youth are in Uttar Pradesh, we have good quality land, we are number one in food grains, we lead in sugarcane, water resources, and we are number one in connectivity in the country. Then why will investment not come to Uttar Pradesh. We are leaders in most sectors; food processing is a big focus area.

People have shown interest in tourism, there is so much scope but nobody ever tried.

There is possibility for spiritual tourism, eco tourism, heritage tourism, but no state government paid any interest. We have Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura, Brij region, are all in Uttar Pradesh. The biggest Kumbh happens in Uttar Pradesh. Buddha circuit is in UP, Ramayan circuit is in UP, Krishna circuit is also in UP. We have 38 big spots to promote eco tourism.

Does Uttar Pradesh have the political climate to bring such big investments? There have been so many encounters in the state.

There is no political problem in Uttar Pradesh. If all institutions work together, it will help in the development of the state. Tomorrow is ours in Uttar Pradesh. I have repeatedly said that there have been no fake encounters in Uttar Pradesh. It is our responsibility to protect the 22 crore people of Uttar Pradesh and we are doing our duty and will continue to do so.