UP 2022: Focus Shifts To Purvanchal As PM Modi Inaugurates Mega Projects In Gorakhpur, Will Be In Kashi Next Week

The focus of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election campaign in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming state assembly polls has shifted to the eastern part of the state as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate multiple projects in this region, also called Purvanchal.

After the inauguration of the Purvanchal Expressway earlier this month in Sultanpur, Prime Minister Modi had laid the foundation stone of the Jewar Airport in western Uttar Pradesh. Between the two events, the Prime Minister was in Jhansi in the Bundelkhand region in the south, where he had participated in the Rashtriya Raksha Samarpan Parv, took stock of the progress in the UP Defence Corridor Project and formally handed over the Light Combat Helicopter, India's first indigenously developed dedicated combat helicopter, to the Indian Air Force.

In Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's bastion Gorakhpur today (7 December), the Prime Minister inaugurated the Gorakhpur Fertiliser Plant and unveiled an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

PM Modi inaugurated projects worth Rs 9,600 crore in Gorakhpur, including nine modern labs at the Regional Medical Research Centre in Baba Raghav Das Medical College, which had made headlines a few years ago as the epicentre of the healthcare crisis linked to acute encephalitis syndrome among children.

Gorakhpur Fertiliser Plant

The fertiliser plant inaugurated by the Prime Minister in Gorakhpur has been revived after more than 30 years at a cost of around Rs 8,600 crore. A factory of the Fertiliser Corporation of India, the plant was closed in 1990 after the death of a worker in an accident. It was later declared obsolete and shut down by the government.

Adityanath, who served as the Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur for five consecutive terms since 1998 before becoming Chief Minister in 2017, fought for its revival for over 15 years. The Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone for the revival of the Gorakhpur Fertiliser Plant in July 2016, ahead of the 2017 assembly elections in the state.

"There had been no Parliament session since 1998 when Adityanath had not raised the issue about the revival of the [Gorakhpur Fertilizer] plant," a News18 report says, quoting unnamed sources.

"Around 30% of youths employed here are from Purvanchal and many of them are women," an official was quoted in the report as saying.

The Gorakhpur Fertiliser Plant will produce 12.7 lakh metric tonnes of neem coated urea per annum, taking India closer to the Prime Minister's goal of self-sufficiency in the production of urea.

This project, executed by Japan's Toyo Engineering Corporation, has the world's highest prilling tower and India's first air-operated rubber dam and blast proof control room to enhance safety.

AIIMS Gorakhpur

Modi also inaugurated the fully functional complex of AIIMS Gorakhpur, built at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crore. The Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone for the project in July 2016.

Built under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna, the operationalisation of AIIMS Gorakhpur will significantly improve healthcare services not just in eastern Uttar Pradesh but also in the backward districts of western Bihar and the underdeveloped parts of the Terai region of Nepal.

"The facilities at AIIMS, Gorakhpur include a 750 bed hospital, Medical college, Nursing college, AYUSH Building, residential accommodation for all staff, hostel accommodation for UG and PG students etc," the Prime Minister's Office said ahead of the inauguration.

Earlier, people from these parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had to travel to the state capitals or the national capital for healthcare services.

The inauguration of AIIMS in Gorakhpur will also fulfil Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's promise of not allowing a repeat of the healthcare crisis linked to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) that claimed the lives of hundreds of children in this part of the state every year.

The first crisis that Adityanath had to face as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was related to acute encephalitis syndrome. Hundreds of children were dying of AES in Gorakhpur and other parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh every month. The problem had been festering for years, if not decades, and successive governments of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had largely ignored it.

On 13 August 2017, at a hurriedly convened press conference during his visit to Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College, the epicentre of the crisis, Adityanath broke down talking about the situation — at least 64 children had died of AES in the last six days.

"Hum log ab ye nahi hone denge (We will not let this happen now)," the Chief Minister said at the presser, assuring action on the issue.

Next year, the cases of AES came down to less than half of those reported in 2017, and the number of deaths linked to AES fell by 66 per cent. A sustained campaign of immunisation, awareness and capacity building helped fight AES, and the battle is now in the last stage.

(Read: Yogi's Battle Against Encephalitis: Data And Ground Check Reveal An Encouraging Story)

Among other projects inaugurated by the Prime Minister was the new building of ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Gorakhpur.

"The Centre has been instrumental in tackling the challenge of Japanese encephalitis /Acute Encephalitis Syndrome in the region. The new building with state-of-the-art facilities will open new horizons of research in areas of Communicable and Non-Communicable diseases as well as help in capacity building and provide support to other medicine institutes of the region," the Prime Minister's Office said in a release.

Modi In Kashi Next Week

The Prime Minister will be in Varanasi next week for the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project. Modi will reach Varanasi on 13 December for the inauguration function of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham.

On 14 December, the second day of his two-day visit, Modi will participate in a meeting with the chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled states invited for the inauguration function. In a show of strength, the leaders of BJP-ruled states will accompany the Prime Minister as he takes a tour of the Ganga and participates in Ganga aarti in the evening.