In a written reply to the Lok Sabha the Minister of External Affairs informed that 276 Indians are infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus abroad.
Ministry of External Affairs in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha: 276 Indians are infected with #coronavirus abroad including 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE, 5 in Italy, and 1 each in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. pic.twitter.com/Hk1GjJoXyT
Of these, 255 Indians are infected in Iran followed by 12 in the UAE and 5 in Italy. 1 Indian citizen has been infected with the virus in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Rwanda and Sri Lanka each. As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as of 9 AM on 18th March 2020, 144 people have tested positive in India of which 130 are active cases and 14 have been cured and discharged. This includes 25 foreign nationals. Three people have died of the virus in India.
The apex court today has sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government in connection with a plea filed by Lingiya Brahmin family seeking reinstatement of daily religious affairs of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi to them. The family has claimed that it has been handling the temple management before the commencement of Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act 1983.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh seeking its response over the petition.
Appearing for the family, former Bombay HC judge B H Marlapalle cited the 2014 SC judgment in Subramanian Swamy vs The state of Tamil Nadu case which held that a law passed to take over the administration and management of religious endowment is co-terminus of removal of the consequence of alleged maladministration.
The plea filed by the Brahmin family read that before the promulgation of the Act and the preceding Ordinance 20 of 1983, the ancestors of/and the petitioners had “Poornaadhikar”(complete right) of conducting Seva, Puja, Raj Bhog, and other religious affairs of the deity and controlled and managed the temple and other endowments of the deity.
“It is well documented that the petitioner and their ancestors had absolute and exclusive right to administer and manner the day to day affairs of the temple and had continued since time immemorial, which could be proven by several historical narratives, scriptures, etc. Though, it was questioned by many in the past, their right to have “Poornaadhikar” had been judicially attested by several judicial verdicts,” the plea said.
The petition further sought orders for repealing the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act, 1983, claiming that it has run out of the course and outlived it’s utility, asking to reinstate the administration, management and conduct of religious affairs as existed prior to UP Ordinance no 20 of 1983, which was later substituted by the UP Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act, 1983 on October 28, 1983.
Around 167 people who are suspected of being infected from COVID-19 novel coronavirus has been missing in Ludhiana, while only 29 have been traced, says Dr Rajesh Bagga, the city’s civil surgeon.
He added, “Two teams have been tasked to find the people coming from abroad, in which police have been given responsibility for finding 119 people. They have found 12 people so far and the other team is from the health department, in which they were given the responsibility to find 77 people. 17 people have been traced by the health department team while rest of 167 people are still missing.”
In a bid to curb out the suspected infections, medical officials in Punjab received a list of people who returned to India and have been tracking down people on the basis of the list.
One of the major reasons that the officials aren’t being able to trace them is their wrong address and phone number that is mentioned in the passport. “Our teams are active and searching for them. They’ll be traced soon,” said the City’s Civil Surgeon.
Sanitization measures have been taking place at Ludhiana Railway station as a precautionary step to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Recently, in another incident of missing suspected cases, 353 passengers having a travel history from the coronavirus hit countries went untraceable as confirmed by the Department of Health and family welfare of Punjab on Saturday. The department noted that 6,692 people from Punjab were identified to have a travel history to coronavirus affected countries out of which 6,011 were traced, while 353 were missing.
An Irish national who was suspected to be infected by the coronavirus had absconded from SCB Medical College and Hospital in Odisha’s Cuttack was later found in a private hotel in Bhuvaneshwar. Reportedly, he had a high fever when he landed in Bhubaneswar International Airport and was immediately taken to the hospital for a mandatory thermal scanner screening after officials suspected him of carrying the virus. He was taken to the SCB from where he had gone missing. Later, the hospital lodged a case against the Irish national at the local Mangalapur police station.
Even as the tally of those affected by coronavirus surges across India, members of Islamist organisation-Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath continue to stage protest against the CAA, NRC and NPR in contravention to the High Court order. The demonstrations have been organised near the Madras High Court in Chennai.
Chennai: People including Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath members continue their protest against CAA, NRC and NPR near Madras High Court. pic.twitter.com/VdjRGIuRbx
Even as the country is battling the pandemic of coronavirus, with the number of cases steadily on the rise, a raft of Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath members along with other demonstrators gathered to mark their protest, defying the order against mass gathering and brazenly undermining the government’s efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Earlier, the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath group had carried out a protest march against the Supreme Court verdict in the long-standing Ayodhya dispute. Condemning the judgment that granted the Hindu side to build a temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi site, more than 2000 members of Thowheed group hit the streets of Chennai carrying placards and shouting slogans against the apex court’s verdict.
Thowheed group’s flagrant disregard of the public health safety amidst the looming coronavirus outbreak mirrors the blatant transgression of the orders banning public gathering by ‘protesters’ at Shaheen Bagh who have refused to follow the containment orders and decided not to curl off their protest.
Exhibiting low regards for the public health system, ‘protesters’ at Shaheen Bagh, who have taken it as an ego tussle, are in no mood to relinquish their protest even as stringent lockdown is being observed in several cities across the country in the wake of threat from the novel coronavirus.
So far, Indian authorities have succeeded in curbing the community transmission of the deadly virus. However, a protest site like Shaheen Bagh and Thowheed protest in Chennai with hundreds of so-called protesters demonstrating against the CAA, offers a conducive environment for the virus to proliferate and multiply, resulting in a sudden explosion of the contagion as witnessed in Italy and Spain. However, the Islamist ‘protesters’ are inconsiderate of the dire implications that their protest poses even as they continue to cock a snook at the government.
In a major development, China has revoked the credentials of three US journalists who work at The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, allegedly as an act of retaliation after US President Donald Trump called coronavirus the ‘Chinese virus’.
The escalation of a media war between the United States and China in the midst of a global pandemic has resulted in US journalists belonging to controversial media outlets being expelled from China. The journalists will not be permitted to work in Hong Kong or Macao.
Reportedly, the escalation started after President Trump tweeted on Monday referring to COVID-19 as ‘Chinese Virus’ in a direct attack on China for the spread of the global pandemic. “The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before,” tweeted US President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump had also barred five Chinese journalists from working in the US earlier this year.
However, the Chinese establishment who seems to have got angered by the direct remarks of the US President Trump has now retaliated by banning the journalists belonging to three controversial US media outlets.
China has demanded that journalists of US citizenship working with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post whose press credentials are due to expire before the end of 2020 notify the Department of Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within four calendar days starting from today and hand back their press cards within ten calendar days.
“They will not be allowed to continue working as journalists in the People’s Republic of China, including its Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions,” read the statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China on Tuesday.
In response to the discriminatory restrictions, China will also take reciprocal measures against American journalists. Earlier, the US has imposed on Chinese journalists with regard to visa, administrative review and reporting.
“What the US has done is exclusively targeting Chinese media organizations, and hence driven by a Cold War mentality and ideological bias,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed that the US has seriously tarnished the reputation and image of Chinese media organizations, seriously affected their normal operation in the US. Further, the Foreign Office stated that the ban had seriously disrupted people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries. It has therefore exposed the hypocrisy of the self-styled advocate of press freedom, it added.
China also urged the United States to swiftly change its course and “undo the damage.”
Over 300 Gujarati people, including students, are stuck in Manila, Philippines amidst the coronavirus outbreak. They have now sought Indian government’s help. As of now as many as 187 people in Philippines have tested positive for the virus that has pushed the world into panic mode.
One MBBS student studying in Philippines took to Twitter to share the ordeal faced by him and many others like him stuck there.
it’s surrounding cities from 12th March untill further announcement regarding this, only hospitals are open. There is no transportation or Food available because most of the gujarati’s are pure vegetarian and due to COVID-19 all the indian canteens are closed,bcz of all this (2)
One Ketul Patel said that owing to spread of COVID19, the Philippines government has decided to shut down Manila and its surrounding cities until further notice. He said that neither transportation nor food is available to them because of the lockdown.
but now due to the new rule of Indian government from today morning that no flight is allowed to land in India which are flying from Malaysia, Philippines and Afghanistan, because of this step 300 to 400 gujarati students are stuck here. (4)
He said that while Philippines government has given them 72 hours to leave the country, India has stopped incoming flights from Philippines, Malaysia and Afghanistan. Owing to this, many are stuck there.
Patel, on behalf of other students and Indians stuck in Philippines has reached out to Indian government for help in evacuation. As per his latest update, the Indian Embassy is in touch with them and are trying their best to help them.
The Press Council of India has issued a show cause notice [pdf] to the Bengal based ultra-left wing rag Telegraph for comparing President of India Ramnath Kovind with the deadly global pandemic COVID-19.
According to a press release issued on Tuesday, the Press Council of India took suo motu cognizance of the headline of the newspaper on March 17, 2020, projecting the President of India as Coronavirus in what it claimed as a ‘satirical’ manner. A show-cause notice has been issued to the ultra-left Telegraph for the violation of journalistic conduct.
Press Council of India issues show cause notice to The Telegraph over the headline comparing President Kovind to virus
Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, the Chairman of the media-watchdog Press Council of India, took cognizance of the issue and sent notice the Editor of the Telegraph for violating norms of Journalistic conduct.
The council stated that the satirical comments, ridiculing and denigrating the first citizen of the country was uncalled for and termed it as beyond the call of the fair journalistic comment.
On Tuesday, Bengal-based media house The Telegraph was called out by netizens for a headline that insulted Dalit community as it compared the President of India, Ramnath Kovind, who is a Dalit leader himself, to ‘Covid19’. The meltdown came after President Kovind nominated ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha.
“Kovind, not Covid, did it”, the headline read.COVID-19 is a pandemic, a coronavirus disease which has impacted lakhs of people globally as of this moment. In its bid to make a wordplay on President’s name by comparing it to the deadly virus, The Telegraph just hit a new low even by its own standards.
The nomination of former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, to the Upper House of the Parliament by the President has caused severe heartburn to the left-liberal ecosystem, who have been relentlessly attacking the former Chief Justice for accepting the Presidential nomination.
Joining hands with the left-liberal media industry, few former Supreme Court judges did not miss their chance to target the Former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi over his nomination to the Rajya Sabha. Former Supreme Court judges Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, who were once alongside Justice Gogoi during the controversial press conference in 2018 also seemed to be unhappy over the Gogoi’s nomination.
However, Justice Gogoi received the most shocking verbal assault from none other than the controversial former Supreme Court Judge Markandey Katju, who responded fiercely to the nomination as he referred the former Chief Justice as ‘shameless’, ‘disgraceful’ and a ‘sexual pervert’.
Katju suffered a huge meltdown on Tuesday as reports emerged that the former CJI Gogoi was nominated to the upper house. Taking to Twitter, the former SC judge Katju said that he had never known any judge in the Indian judiciary as ‘shameless, disgraceful and sexual pervert’ as Ranjan Gogoi in his 20 years of being a judge.
I have been a lawyer for 20 yrs and a judge for another 20. I hv known many good judges & many bad judges. But I have never known any judge in the Indian judiciary as shameless & disgraceful as this sexual pervert Ranjan Gogoi. There was hardly any vice which was not in this man
Katju’s attack on Justice Gogoi is not a new one. Markandey Katju had spoken out against Gogoi before when he had responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate a woman employee who had been dismissed after accusing Gogoi of sexual misconduct. Then, Katju had called Gogoi a “rascal and a rogue”.
At last the woman employee who was sexually molested by CJI Gogoi and victimized along with her family has been reinstated.
There was no vice which was not in Ranjan Gogoi. And yet this rascal and rogue rose to become CJI. It speaks volumes about our judiciary.
The rant against Justice Gogoi by Markandey Katju came despite the former Chief Justice was cleared of the charges raised in the letter in May 2019 by an ‘in-house’ committee of Supreme Court justices comprising current Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices NV Ramana and Indira Banerjee.
Katju’s contempt against Gogoi perhaps stems out from a past incident when in 2016, a Supreme Court bench headed by then SC Judge had slapped a contempt notice on retired judge Markandey Katju for his controversial social media posts on sensitive issues.
Justice Gogoi then had torn into Katju before issuing the contempt notice after the latter had made unverified claims against the SC bench that was hearing the sensational Soumya murder and rape case from Kerala. The court had taken suo motu cognizance of Katju’s blog criticising the SC judges and Gogoi had even warned in an open court that Katju would be escorted out if he continued to make such contemptuous observation before the bench.
The observation made against Katju by the then Justice Gogoi perhaps still resonates in the mind of Katju, who often resorts to vile, personal attack against the former SC Chief Justice to settle his personal score. However, the worrying matter is that Katju, who himself was an SC judge has now resorted to such mindless rant against a Former SC Chief Justice.
The Press Council of India (PCI) has issued a show-cause notice to Dainik Bhaskar for publishing fake interview of Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin.
Press Council of India press release
In a statement [pdf] issued on Tuesday, the PCI said that the Chairman has taken suo-motu cognizance of the matter and ordered to issue show cause notice to the media house.
On March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Dainik Baskar’s digital arm DB Post published an interview with Sanna Marin, the prime minister of Finland. The interviewer had claimed to have met Marin in Helsinki. But later it had emerged that no such interview had taken place, and the entire interview was fabricated.
The ‘interview’ comprised of 15 questions that the Finnish PM had ‘answered’, which was labelled as exclusive by Bhaskar. The publication had claimed that the interviewer had gone to Finland and met Sanna Marin for an exclusive chat. According to it, Marin had described India as having great potential, apart from giving detailed answers.
The interview, published on the website of DB Post, was spotted by Finnish prime minister’s office on Sunday, March 8 itself, according to a report by Finnish media house Journalisti. Päivi Anttikoski, Communications Director of Finland government said that she is amazed that a major Indian media house published an interview that never took place. “We would have known if anyone in Helsinki had interviewed the Prime Minister”, she said, affirming that the interview is fake.
Following the discovery of the fake interview, the Finnish govt launched an operation to seek answers from India, including through the Indian Embassy in Helsinki. They were informed that the interview was handed over to Dainik Bhaskar by a freelance journalist, including notes on Finnish government letterhead. Anttikoski asserts that the letterheads were also fake, and they were not from the Finnish govt’s office.
While going through the answers given by Sanna Marin in the fake interview, it was later determined that the text was lifted from an earlier interview of the Finnish PM given to German TV channel ZDF. The transcript of a portion of the TV interview was published on the ZDF website on February 19th, and it appears that Bhaskar repackaged it and presented it to DBPost as his exclusive interview of Marin. The media house too failed to check the authenticity of the interview and published it on its website.
Our government has completed three years in UP today, sailing through a sea of challenges and opportunities. Today is a historic day when the state chose the nationalist ideology to serve it by bringing BJP to power.
The nationalist government of Uttar Pradesh has been facing the numerous challenges of expectations and aspirations since ages.
The challenges
On one hand, there was a challenge to organize the highly unorganized governance structure while on the other hand there was a challenge to bring the downtrodden, marginalised and poor in the mainstream of society.
From illegal mining to illegal slaughterhouses, the challenge was to save both the state and nature. There was also a challenge to enrich education from basic to higher level.
The challenge was to let the law and order situation take a fresh breath from the prevailing anarchy and Gundaraj with the motto of `Paritranaay Sadhunaam, Vinashaya Cha Dushkratam’.
There was also a challenge to bring a revolutionary change in the entire work culture of the state. The challenge was huge, but the firm determination made it a reality and things actually happened in Uttar Pradesh.
The steps
Our first step was to give `Khadi’ it’s due respect and the next was to strengthen and bring the law and order situation under control. This was also made possible by shutting down the illegal slaughterhouses.
Unnecessary holidays were scrapped and victims of Triple Talaq were given due respect and necessary government help.
The mantra of `Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas’ was made a ground reality by bringing changes in the Madarsa Education system for Muslim students while bringing them into the mainstream of the society and the budget provision was made for the marriage of Muslim girls. The government was successful in eradicating the evils of discrimination based on caste, region and religion.
On the noble path of unity, the journey of development is rather easy and this was visible across the state.
Investment and infrastructure
While the Investors’ Summit brought global investment in UP, the infrastructure development, without creating any regional imbalance, the underdeveloped regions of the state have been given infrastructure development projects like Purvanchal Expressway (340.82 km), Bundelkhand Expressway (296.070 km) and Ganga Expressway (596.00 km) and the work is in progress on a war footing.
Purvanchal Expressway
Not only new roads are being constructed in this vast state but air connectivity is also in our priority list. It is noteworthy that before the year 2017, only two cities in the state were connected by air connectivity. Our government is working on 12 new airports.
On one hand, the construction work of metro has been expanded in Lucknow, the work is in progress in other cities like Kanpur, Jhansi, Varanasi, Agra, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur.
The Jewar International Airport is a boon to the state and it will lead to the growth and prosperity of NCR. It will not only give enough scope of jobs and employment to millions of people but will also give global recognition to UP.
It is also to be noted that the improved connectivity and better law and order have resulted in an increase of 18.6% in the interest of investors with context to Uttar Pradesh.
It is also noteworthy that as a result of “Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit 2018”, investment proposals worth Rs. 4.68 lakh crores have been received out of which 371 projects have been implemented.
All these will generate more than 33 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities. In order to speed up the pace of industrialization in the state, the government is going to organize “UP Global Investors Summit 2020”. Today UP is the first choice of big entrepreneurs for investment across the country.
Agriculture
The biggest challenge and priority was to bring smiles on the faces of farmers of Uttar Pradesh who were on verge of committing suicide. Cane farmers were waiting eagerly since ages that someone will solve or at least understand their problems. As soon as BJP came into power, in a short span of 3 years, the government many issues have been resolved.
A system has been developed to resolve the problems related to payments that were pending since 2010-11. The collaboration of empathy towards the cane farmers and the execution of the plan that helped in waiving the pending payment dues of more than ₹92 thousand crores.
Uttar Pradesh stood first in sugarcane and sugar production in the country for the second time in a row. The sugarcane sector alone has seen record payments worth ₹92 thousand crores made to the farmers. Expansion and crushing capacity of Munderwa, Pipraich and Ramala sugar mills has been increased and the capacity of 11 sugar mills was expanded.
For the first time in 25 years, licenses of 105 new Khandasari units were approved, which led to 27,850 T.C.D. of additional crushing capacity. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh has become the largest ethanol supplier in the country. Not only this, but six dozen mills of the state are also producing two thousand megawatts of energy, due to which this industry is also becoming self-sufficient in the energy sector.
Two-thirds of the state’s population depends on agriculture-based income. Working on the target of Hon. Prime Minister’s resolution to double the income of the farmers by the year 2022, the State Government has implemented several schemes. For the same, the state government prepared soil health cards of more than 4 crore farmers.
Thousands of farmers have been provided 40 to 90% subsidy through a custom hiring centre for purchasing agricultural machinery, this amount has been transferred directly to the farmers’ account through DBT.
It is noteworthy that through “The Millions Farmers’ Schools”, farmers have been given training in improved farming at the Nyaya Panchayat level. 14 new Krishi Vigyan Kendras have been established in the state. Six new science centres are proposed. Minimum Support Price which was made a far-fetched dream in previous governments has been implemented and farmers have been given benefit at the grass-root level for pulses and oilseeds along with wheat and paddy.
So far, under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana, Rs 12 thousand crores have been sent directly to the accounts of farmers. The farmers’ loan of Rs. 36 thousand crore has been waived off by our government and we have fulfilled the promises made to the farmers.
Irrigation and water conservation
The plan to benefit 50 lakh farmers by irrigation of 18 lakh hectares of additional land in this financial year through projects like Arjun Sahayak, Bhavani and Bandai Dam projects in Bundelkhand region and Saryu Canal, Madhya Ganga Canal, Uttar Pradesh Water Sector Restructuring etc. in the plains areas are going to be implemented.
In Bundelkhand, more than 8 thousand new ponds have been built on private land under the ‘Khet Talab’ scheme. This year, six thousand new local ponds will be constructed. The Aami River in Gorakhpur, the Odi River in Lalitpur, the Gomti River in Pilibhit and Tamsa in Ayodhya have been revived.
In continuation of the same, the pious Ganga Yatra, a journey from faith to economy, was the invocation of farmers and revival of rivers. Under the Namami Gange project, Sisamau drain in Kanpur, which released 14 crore litres of sewer into the holy Ganga daily, has been closed. This has greatly reduced the pollution level in the Ganga in Kanpur. The far-reaching results of the work done by the state government for water conservation on the Ganga and its tributaries will be seen in the future. Not only will the rivers be clean, but farmers will get abundant pollution-free irrigation water, which will definitely increase their income.
Healthcare
In order to let the health department recover from the virus of ‘mismanagement’, it was necessary to provide a “Prana Vayu” of good governance.
It is interesting to know here that for the last 76 years after the country became independent, only 12 medical colleges existed in the state.
Thereafter, we established 7 new medical colleges and started MBBS classes in them in just 3 years for easy, well organized and resourceful medical facilities. We laid the foundation stone of 8 new medical colleges. Along with this, approval was also received from the central government for the establishment of 13 new medical colleges. In this way, Uttar Pradesh will get the services of 28 medical colleges. Not only this, AIIMS are coming up in Gorakhpur and Rae Bareli as well.
It is the result of the improvement of health services and the activities under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan that for four decades in eastern UP, the number of encephalitis patients which was known as epidemics in children, has decreased by 56% and encephalitis death has decreased by 90%. The public’s faith in the government medical system at government hospitals of the state has increased. People have started visiting government hospitals again.
We have started organizing “Mukhyamantri Arogya Mela” at every Primary Health Centre for active and enhanced medical services as a more constructive experiment to make the state healthy.
Via Twitter
Since February 2, lakhs of people have received free medical facilities in these health fairs. Today, our health department is fully prepared to deal with any emergency like Corona Virus infection in the state. From launching awareness campaigns to the setting up of isolation wards, from the blockade of border areas to the installation of thermal analyzers, no effort has been spared.
Education
A society can move on the path of development only because of education. So first of all, we freed education from the clutches of cheating mafias. Through “Operation Kayakalp”, basic facilities like boundary wall, toilets, drinking water, electrification are being provided in more than 92 thousand primary schools. In these schools, 45,383 teachers have been recruited and the recruitment of 69,000 teachers is in the last phase. Similarly, 55 new government inter colleges have also been approved in secondary education.
Not only this, but the process to set up Atal Residential Schools have been expedited in every Circle Headquarters in order to spread the light of knowledge in the lives of children of labourers and deprived kids.
The Vantangia, Kol, Mushar and Tharu tribes, which have been marginalized for centuries, were brought into the mainstream of the society and we declared all their villages as revenue villages and covered them with all the public welfare schemes run by the government. They got the right to vote for the first time since independence.
Women Empowerment
Our government has also done a better job for women empowerment. Under the Mukhyamantri Samuhik Vivah Yojana, more than 01 lakh poor girls were benefited through a grant of Rs 51 thousand per beneficiary. Effective action was taken against the miscreants by establishing ‘anti-Romeo squad’. Good work has been done in the state under Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign. “Mukhyamantri Kanya Sumangala Yojana” was also implemented. The result of the effective implementation of programmes of Health Department and Women Welfare Department is that the sex ratio has improved significantly in various districts of the state. There has been a considerable increase in the number of beneficiaries in the Nirashrit Mahila Pension Yojana. Women battalions are being established in Lucknow, Badaun and Gorakhpur. “Pink Bus Service” has been started. In these buses, security personnel along with women conductors are being deployed and CCTV cameras are also being installed in these buses.
Law and order
On the law and order front, we inherited a helpless police force. The places that should have been “safe zones” were the “safari zones” of criminals. Our government tried hard to bring the law and order back on track. As a result, today either the criminals are fleeing the state or are imprisoned. For better policing, 41 new police stations, 13 new check posts were established in the state. 1.7 lakh police personnel were recruited. Police Commissioner system was implemented in Lucknow and Gautam Budh Nagar.
By adopting a policy of zero tolerance towards crime and corruption, the police system was immensely improved. Crime figures have dropped to a considerable extent. While the dacoity cases decreased by 59.70% in the year 2019 as compared to 2016, there was a decrease of 47.09% in murder cases in the same period.
Due to effective measures taken by the administration and the police, no incidents of violence was reported at the time of the order for the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, and at the time of the verdict on Sri Ram Janmabhoomi dispute in Ayodhya.
In opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act, some anti-social elements unsuccessfully tried to disturb the law and order, but this too was later effectively controlled. After identifying the miscreants, the damages done by them on the property was recovered from them, and this effort of the government also gained widespread support throughout the country. The Punjab and Haryana High Court appreciated the better law and order in the state and said that stringent law should be enforced against criminals on the lines of UP. This was a major blow to the miscreants and their leaders.
Other achievements
It is only because of efficient planning and disciplined system that the rate of per capita income is continuously increasing in the state. While the per capita income in 2014-15 was ₹ 42,267, it has currently increased to ₹ 70,419. It is the achievement of our transparent system that the government jobs provided by the state government to 03 lakh people in the last three years are dispute free.
It is a matter of personal satisfaction for me that in these three years the state has reached the top in the country in many areas. Uttar Pradesh became the first state in the country to implement skill development policy, state health policy and declare human-wildlife conflict a disaster. It also secured the first place in the country by winning the top award for making the most purchases under e-market (Gem). It bagged 9 awards in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 07 in MNREGA, 02 in Rurban Mission, 01 in Livelihood Mission, 01 in Gram Swaraj Abhiyan and 01 in NIRDP.
Within three years, the rate of maternal mortality declined by 30%. The state received the highest award for Nutrition Month. 14 municipal bodies of the state were honored in the cleanliness survey and received the Krishi Karman Award for highest oilseed production. It was commended to implement an innovative experiment like the Million Farmers’ School (Kisan Pathshala) scheme in the country and abroad, while ‘one district-one product scheme’ was lauded by the Central Government and it was considered good enough to be implemented in every district.
The state also got the Nari Shakti Puraskar for setting up One Stop Center under Women Empowerment, National e-Governance Award for Digital Land System, Saubhagya Yojana Award for more power connectivity, 03 National Awards for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. The state also ranks first in milk, sugar, sugarcane and food production. The state is also the leader in the establishment and operation of most medical institutions in the country. These awards encourage us to innovate constantly. Because of these, the state is gaining the identity of a developed state.
We are committed to the welfare of all, including the village, the poor, farmers, women, labourers, and the youth. Uttar Pradesh, with a huge population of 23 crore people, is moving towards becoming a one trillion dollar economy as envisioned by Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, bringing positive productive change.
Our ideological vision which embodies the concept of Rashtrodaya from Antyodaya is relentless in order to satisfy the desire of Awadh, the hope of Purvanchal, the expectation of Bundelkhand and the aspirations of Paschimanchal. The actions being taken by our system under zero tolerance on everyone involved in corruption and malpractices have been successful in conveying the message of “changed system” in the state.
Budget is the financial structure of schemes. For the inclusive development of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in the country, we have presented a budget of Rs. 5 lakh 12 thousand 860 crores 72 lakh, which is the biggest budget in the history of the state. In this historic budget dedicated to youth, schemes like Chief Minister’s Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme and Youth Entrepreneurship Development Campaign (YUVA) will prove to be milestones in the field of self-employment and self-reliance.
It is just the beginning. It is the first step of the resolve to take the holy land of Lord Shri Ram and Shri Krishna to the highest glory with the inspiration of the respected Prime Minister. I am confident that the remaining 2 years will prove to be milestones in the direction of progress, public welfare and democracy.
Yes, on the basis of the fulfilment of the promises made in 2017 elections, the foundation of a new Uttar Pradesh has been laid.
