Farmers Movement Archive

In the most testing year, we turned challenges into opportunities: UP CM Yogi Adityanath

After a challenging year due to the Covid-19 crisis, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said that vaccination is his number one priority for New Year. In an interview to TOI about the ups and downs of 2020 and what lies ahead for his government in 2021, the CM said he and his team took on the Covid-19 challenge head on, going into mission mode as soon as the lockdown was announced. Q1. When you look back at the year gone by, what's the first feeling that you get?A. Under the able guidance of our honourable prime minister Shri Narenda Modi Ji, we are coming out triumphant in our battle against Covid, and we have also managed to turn all the challenges into opportunities for the state of UP. It was no doubt the most challenging year. Not only for me, but everybody in the world. Covid broke out just as our government was completing three years in office. But we took the challenge head on, all the celebrations were put on hold and my team went into mission mode right from the beginning without any delay. We formed Team 11 on the day the Prime Minister announced the first lockdown. The team comprising heads of key departments, has been meeting every single day in the past nine months to assess the challenges and form strategies on the daily basis to have a better grip on the problem. I told my team that if we must defeat the virus, we have to remain two steps ahead of it. And thankfully, we more or less have been able to do it. Q2. Despite over 40 lakh migrant workers returning to the state during the lockdown, how did UP manage to keep Covid numbers in check and avoid a second wave?It was one of the most emotional moments of my life. We were grappling with the disease as it started spreading in the state, when I came to know about 4 lakh people belonging to UP almost disowned by the Delhi government thronging the UP borders, I was moved by their plight as most of them had been thrown out by the AAP government without making any arrangement for further journey and almost all of them started walking or cycling towards their homes to far off places in eastern UP. But we are in the habit of facing challenges, we immediately made arrangements for their transport, food and water. Our UPSRTC officials and drivers worked day and night without fearing the infection to ensure that the migrant workers reached home safely. Thereafter, we facilitated the movement of over 30,000 students studying in Kota and Prayagraj back to their homes. We also had the surge in cases due to Tablighi Jamaat episode. It was followed by the large-scale migrant movement, which saw over 36 lakh workers coming back to UP from different parts of the country, We also made arrangements for their transport to their homes, gave them ration, medical help and did a massive skill mapping exercise never done in history before to help us plan their local employment in the state. We also signed MoUs with industry organisations to ensure immediate employment in the state itself. Luckily, we have been able to give employment to the migrant workers in MNREGA as well as local industries to a large extent. We stayed ahead of the epidemic and checked community spread by ensuring proper arrangements of home isolation as well as their quarantine. Our medical education department rose to the challenge by raising the number of labs from 2 to 62 and the number of tests from 72 to now more than 1.80 lakh per day. UP has done the maximum number of tests in the country and we have reached a figure of 2.4 Crore tests. We set up several special covid hospitals and centres of excellence, raise the number of ICU and ventilator beds to make them available in each district. When these migrants came, our surveillance teams in all 60,000 village panchayats kept a close watch on them. Besides, we maintained an extensive contact tracing programme, which has been praised by the WHO. Due to the strict monitoring and relentless work by our health workers, we managed to stem the surge not only when the migrants came to the state, but have also neutralised a second surge, which most states have seen. Q 3. It was an eventful year from all aspects. Foundation of Ram Temple was laid. Your government took some bold decisions. Some of them created controversies.A. Foundation of Ram Temple in Ayodhya was the biggest highlight of the year. The function was organised in a grand manner while following all Covid protocols. Work on the Temple would now begin soon and we would ensure that devotees from across the country come to witness this spectacle once the Covid restrictions are relaxed. The whole world saw the kind of destruction caused by the agitators during the anti-CAA and NRC protests in the beginning of the year. It was a motivated campaign done to tarnish the image of the state and the central government. Nobody was going to lose citizenship under CAA and there was no word on the implementation of the NRC. Still a conspiracy was hatched, and violent protests were staged in 20 districts. We can't tolerate such anarchy, so we brought out the ordinance to crack down on those who indulge in destructing public and private properties in the name of exercising democratic rights. Our similar pledge was for cow protection. So apart from amending the existing anti-cow slaughter law, we introduced several schemes and plans for the welfare of the cow population. We also opened many state supported cow shelters to house the stray cows and the state has been taking care of all the stray cows. Protecting our girl and young women from criminals and rowdy elements was our commitment. So, after the formation of "anti-Romeo squad'', we came up with the law to prohibit forceful conversions after marriage. We also launched 'Mission Shakti', a six-month drive to empower the women of the state. Besides this, 58,000 women were selected as banking correspondents and women SHGs are being appointed as PDS shop operators and to take care of the community toilets in the villages. We also went ahead with the crackdown on criminals and mafia dons and their properties worth Rs 758 crore were seized in one year. Q 4. On the new anti-conversion law, there have been allegations that couples are being harassed by police and right-wing groups. What is the government doing to prevent misuse of the law?The law was brought in to end deceitful and forceful conversions in interfaith marriages. There had been hundreds of complaints of deceitful conversions in many inter faith marriages in the state. Before this ordinance, the victim could take shelter under section 420 of the IPC and minor sections, which were not very stringent and often ended in a long-drawn process, hence a specific and stringent law was needed to save innocent girls and women from deceitful inter faith marriages. The law only lays down a process to allow such marriages and conversions thereafter and provide stringent punishment for deceit and forceful conversion. However, I want to assure you that no misuse of this law will be tolerated. Q5. UP has so far managed to avoid any major confrontation with farmer groups over the new laws. How has your government engaged with them?A. No government in the past has done the kind of work the BJP government at the Centre and the state have done for the welfare of farmers, and farmers of not only UP but all states appreciated the farm bills, that is why there is no protest anywhere except Delhi border. It's just a ploy by the middlemen -- who would be impacted by the new laws when farmers get their own choice to sell their produce -- to disrupt life in the National capital. They are trying to mislead some farmers and their trick would be exposed soon. In UP, we have been having a constant dialogue with farmers to know about their issues and problems. The seventh installment of Kisan Samman has already been transferred to the account of nearly 2.4 crore farmers. The state government has so far transferred Rs 2.5 lakh crore in the past 3.5 years in the shape of arrears of cane dues, purchase of paddy and wheat on minimum support price, waiver of loans of almost 86 Lakh farmers and money transfer under PM Samman Scheme, hence our farmers are more satisfied with the government than anywhere else. Our government has also made a record payment to cane farmers. Q6. UP has a population of around 24 crore. What is the plan for vaccine roll out?We are fully prepared for the drive. UP is the state which handles large-scale immunisation campaigns on a routine basis. We have shown what an effective health campaign can do by bringing down the cases and deaths caused by JE and AES in eastern UP districts. As far as the Covid vaccination drive is concerned, we are ready to go for the first phase with over 2.5 lakh liters of storage capacity and preparation of the cold chain. Over 9 lakh health workers would be covered in the first phase. A six-member team led by a medical officer and including one vaccinator, one verifier, one support staff and two security personnel, will man every single site. Q7. To what extent was UP's revenue affected due to the pandemic? How did it affect the development projects?As the lockdown was complete in the first two months of the financial year, there was bound to be an adverse impact. But we started bouncing back as soon as some economic activities started. MSME, followed by the agriculture sector, led the comeback. We not only generated jobs for lakhs of youths and migrants, but also got investment from other parts of the country and even abroad. Online loan camps were organised to fund more than 6.8 Lakh MSME units in the state thereby creating employment for almost 30 Lakh people in the state only in MSME sector, various banks in the state have disbursed more than 31,000 Crores to 11.24 Lakh MSME units (old and new) till now and the campaign is going on. Record 30 crore person days have been created under MNREGS in just nine months of this financial year and 1.11 crore people were engaged. It's an all-time record. The state has been very aggressive in inviting foreign investment during the pandemic and we have received proposals of investment of almost 52,000 Crores during the pandemic. Many units are moving from China to UP, Samsung being one of them and many others. No other state has got investment proposals as UP has. This shows the confidence of investors in various policies of our government. The state has jumped to number 2 position in the country in ease of doing business ranking. Our revenue crossed the 2019 collection in September itself and is now in the positive for the past four months. We have commissioned much-awaited Noida Airport and work on it is about to begin so that it starts operational by 2023. We also moved very quickly to start the process to set up the Film City on Greater Noida and work on Purvanchal Express is nearing completion. Bundelkhand Expressway is almost halfway through and construction of two links expressways which would connect the entire eastern UP to Delhi is about to begin. Q8. What are your plans for the coming year?Vaccination, of course, would be the top priority. We will ensure that in different phases, we are able to vaccinate our people as per their need. Besides, work on Noida airport, film city and Ganga Expressway would begin. We will also dedicate Purvanchal Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway to the people of the state in the same year. And to top it all, construction of Ram Temple, too, would begin this year. Our special focus will be on farmers, women and youth. We have created 4 lakh government jobs in less than four years; we will create another 1 lakh this year to make it 5 lakh government jobs in 5 years, apart from creating 80 Lakh to 1 Crore jobs in the private sector.

The Times of India

2021-01-01

Lucknow