PM launches 81 projects worth Rs 60K crore for UP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched 81 investment projects worth over Rs 60,000 crore for Uttar Pradesh at a mega ground-breaking event.

Modi lauded the Uttar Pradesh Government for its achievement and said probably the State Government does not realise the great work it has done in such a short span of time.

“Rs 60,000 crore investment in five months’ time is a great figure of investment. It is not a groundbreaking ceremony but a record breaking function. The manner in which development works have been carried out in such a short span of time was never seen before in UP,” said the PM, adding as Chief Minister of Gujarat he knew how difficult it was to execute MoUs.

The achievement of the Yogi Adityanath Government is commendable, he said. Several industrialists, including Gautam Adani, Kumar Manglam Birla and Subhash Chandra also addressed the gathering. In an attempt to blunt the criticism from the Opposition that he was “friendly to industrialists,” Modi said he was not shy of standing with those who are the “growth engine” of the country because his “intentions are clear”.

“We have just four years of rule in the country but those who ruled for 70 years, had always met the industrialists in close door.

You will not find pictures with them because they did not make anything public. We are not those who are shy of standing along with industrialists,” the PM said.

“It is wrong to call industrialists as ‘lootera’ and ‘chor’, which is an insult to them,” he said. The PM said even Gandhi ji was not shy of staying at Birla’s house because his intentions were clean. “From a farmer to labourer and even industrialist all are contributing in India’s growth story and insulting the industrialists would do nothing good. Yes, if they do wrong they will be behind bars or will have to flee from the country,” he said.

The PM’s comment seems to be a reply against Congress president Rahul Gandhi on his attack on some industrialists calling them Rs Modi ji ke dost’. These projects have the potentials of creating over two lakh new jobs, UP Minister for Industries Satish Mahana said.

The PM said this achievement has raised hopes that UP will soon cross one trillion dollar economy. He said there was a time when people used to look at investment in UP as a challenge but today it has turned into an opportunity.

“I am happy that UP CM has focused on equal development across the state. It’s not just Noida and Ghaziabad but other parts of Uttar Pradesh have also gained,” said the PM, adding that UP has now turned into a policy driven State and this huge investment is proof of that.

Elaborating on importance of UP in the development of the country, Modi said the nation is becoming a hub of mobile manufacturing for the world. “Uttar Pradesh is leading this manufacturing revolution. More than 50 mobile manufacturing company are working in UP and the largest mobile manufacturing unit in the world has also been established here,” he said.

“These projects will prove to be a big step in giving a new direction to Digital India and Make in India. Be it setting up of fiber or establishment of IT center for internet service in UP, digital infrastructure will give a new direction, new pace to the State,” Modi said.

The PM said in past three years, Rs 50,000 crore have been saved in electricity bills of the poor and middle class because of the LED bulbs were used n households under Ujala scheme.

“If I had announced a concession of this amount, ‘Wah Wah Modi’ would have been the headlines for a week but no one is saying about the achievement,” he said.

The PM also referred to former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, who was sitting along with Bollywood filmmaker Boney Kapoor in the audience saying: “Amar Singh would be knowing all the details how the politicians used the industrialists.”

He further said there is no shortage of coal as the power generation has gone up and by the end of this fiscal every household of the country would get electricity supply.” There was a power deficient of 4.2 per cent in 2014 when we took the reign but now it has come down to just 1 per cent while as per the World Bank report in past four years, India had a jump of 82 points in the power index,” he claimed.