Yogi Adityanath Government Set To Present Report Card On Its First Hundred Days

The Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh completes its 100 days later this month, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to give the celebrations a soft launch on International Yoga Day.

The state government is planning to give its first report card when it completes 100 days on 25 June 2017. Just a few days before the 100-day celebrations, Modi will be in Lucknow on 21 June 2017 to take part in the International Yoga Day celebrations. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath along with all his cabinet ministers will be present at the event.

BJP is also planning to hold a public meeting for the 100-day celebrations.

Ahead of celebrations across Uttar Pradesh, the state government is giving the final touches to the farm loan waiver it had announced in April in the first cabinet meeting. The celebrations also coincide with the budget session which is likely to start in June-end.

Adityanath had decided to waive farm loans worth Rs 36,359 crore which the government says is expected to benefit at least 21.5 million small and marginal farmers.

“The Uttar Pradesh government will go to the people and inform them about what all it has done for the state in the first 100 days of the government. There would be public meetings and press conferences of Adityanath, cabinet ministers have also been asked to travel to their constituencies to talk about the 100 day work of the state government,” said a Cabinet Minister of the Uttar Pradesh government.

Apart from the farm loan waiver, the state government has also started preparations for the first Vibrant Uttar Pradesh summit, slated for 2018. The summit is on the lines of the Vibrant Gujarat event started when Modi was chief minister of Gujarat. The state government is also coming out with an industrial policy to invite companies to set up factories in Uttar Pradesh.

Realising that the success of its industrial policy would largely depend on the availability of regional connectivity, the state government is also exploring the possibility of building airports at Allahabad and Gorakhpur to add to the two that Uttar Pradesh has in Lucknow and Varanasi. The state government wants to utilise the central government’s UDAN ( Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme for regional connectivity.

The state government is also holding discussions with the Union Aviation Ministry for an international airport in Jewar in Noida, which was rejected by the Akhilesh Yadav government.

“We have held several rounds of discussion with the Niti Aayog which is helping us not only formulate industrial policy but also look at areas or regions which would be suitable for industries to set up factories,” the Cabinet Minister added, asking not to be named.

With its commitment for the welfare of farmers, especially in Bundelkhand region, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to promote drip irrigation in the state and is looking at possible ways in which the state government can help double the income of framers.

About this year’s widespread caste violence in Saharanpur, the minister said: “The violence in Saharanpur is a setback for the state government, we didn’t expect it to happen. The intelligence input was faulty, the government is taking corrective steps in Saharanpur.”

He added, “We are committed to the betterment of farmers and it is for this reason that the state government has decided to make at least 6,000 check dams in Bundelkhand which is a perennially drought prone area. We want to promote drip irrigation in the region so that the water shortage problem can be solved.”

This piece was first published on Live Mint and has been republished here with permission.