UP’s progress and Yogi’s dynamism

Despite the State being one-fifth of India, it had to wait long before seeing noticeable development under the Yogi Adityanath regime

India’s largest State Uttar Pradesh, also its most politically vibrant, has also moved in the field of development the fastest. Be it in the layout of highways, appointments to Government services, providing employment to the people, increasing investments, improving law and order, encouraging tourism and pilgrimage, as well as expanding the small and medium enterprises sector, Uttar Pradesh is making waves.

Since Independence, one never heard that this State had moved in the area of development. It is surprising that New Delhi did not bother, perhaps ignoring the fact that UP is one-fifth of India. If, therefore, UP leaps in progress, the country races ahead in terms of development. Evidently, for the powers-that-be in India’s

rajdhani, UP was treated as a bank of 84 Lok Sabha seats (80 now) and a sure-shot ticket to parliamentary majority at the Centre, but nothing more. In fact, a chief former ruling dynasty was reported to have voiced an opinion in favour of keeping Uttar Pradesh backward and fragmented.

The State today in 2021 is a vastly changed place. From the backwaters of most economic indices, it today has moved to becoming India’s second-richest in terms of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which stands at $268 billion, behind only Maharashtra now. This, under Yogi Adityanath has been an achievement despite the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the ease of doing business, a crucial global benchmark, UP, which languished at 16th position in the country in 2016, has moved up to the second rank among India’s States.

Law and order, the most important prerequisite for any development activity to flower, was never a strong suit in Uttar Pradesh before Adityanath took over. Any economic or capital investment in the State remained a dream. The scenario after Yogi’s coming to office in March 2017 is a sharp contrast. Over the past four-and-a-half years, 137 criminals have been liquidated in police action, while close to 3,000 criminals were injured; nearly 37,000 accused have been booked under the Gangster Act and over 500 under the National Security Act. The Yogi administration has also hit criminals hard by targeting their finances; in the State Government’s drive against the mafia, their illicit property worth more than Rs 1,500 crore has either been attached or demolished. Along with action against the mafia, the Yogi administration has also provided protection to witnesses.

And a vastly improved law and order has begun to pay off in the realm of development. Here too, figures speak for themselves. The State’s development data reveals that over the years, UP has received investment proposals worth Rs 66,000 crore from both foreign and local investors. The administration has acted promptly on these proposals. More to the point, companies from Japan, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the UK, the US, Taiwan and South Korea are lining up to invest in UP; one company has left from China to set up operations in Agra. It is also significant that the Government is ensuring that the flow of investment is not confined to the State’s bigger cities, but is also being channeled to smaller towns like Etah, Amroha, Mirzapur, and so on.

Apart from the fresh proposals for investment, MoUs worth Rs 4.68 lakh crore have been signed at investors’ summits, of which 371 proposals worth close to Rs 3 lakh crore are already functional, generating employment for up to 5 lakh people. Here, one must make mention of the work being done by this Government on the defence industrial manufacturing corridor, which has already drawn up to 14 MoUs. The aim is to transform Uttar Pradesh into a hub of capital-intensive manufacturing, which the defence industry invariably entails.

Farmers have much to be happy about in Yogi Adityanath’s rule. Development schemes and programmes, for their long-term success, also need the health of the rural economy to be robust. The Adityanath policy of transparent purchase of wheat and paddy, as also his continuous supervision of purchase centres, has been successful. The example of paddy should suffice; the State Government has purchased a record 60 lakh metric tonne of the grain against a slated target of 55 lakh metric tonne. Payments made to the State’s farmers have been touching new records as well. The Government has stepped up its efforts to double the income of the State’s farmers. Nearly Rs 33,000 crore have been transferred to the accounts of the nearly three crore farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, plus separate transfers under crop insurance schemes. The modernisation of 20 sugar mills in the State, along with the reopening of the Pipraich, Munderwa and Ramala sugar mills, is a particularly significant milestone in the Yogi administration’s agriculture policy.

Uttar Pradesh under Yogi Adityanath is clearly not the “Bimaru” State it was once derided as, but a State on a rapid march upwards. This is important for the State, which is one-fifth of India. Being backward is bad enough, but if one-fifth of the frame is sick, the rest of the body cannot in any way be healthy. Moreover, the Narasimha Rao-initiated 1991 reforms did not benefit UP. This makes UP’s march under Adityanath all the more remarkable.

(The writer is a well-known columnist, an author and a former member of the Rajya Sabha. The views expressed are personal.)

Source: PTI