The Uttar Pradesh government wants to develop Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway as IT hub of the state, says Alok Ranjan , Chief Advisor to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in a conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) .
What have been the achievements, goals and vision of the UP government in four and a half years?
Our Hon’ble Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav ji has a vision that infrastructure is very important for the State’s development.
In the road sector, the most important project has been the Lucknow-Agra Expressway which has already been completed and inaugurated. In the energy sector, we are focusing on Urja project which gives 22 hours of electricity to the urban areas and 18 hours of electricity to rural areas.
The government of Uttar Pradesh has allocated the maximum budget and resources to both these projects. Chief Minister has directed me to focus on projects like Lucknow Metro, Lucknow-Agra expressway, four landing of the roads, district headquarters and Urja project. I am keeping a check on these projects weekly so that timelines can be met.
Do you think public mindset for Uttar Pradesh has changed after these development projects came into limelight?
People are realising that the development is actually happening in the state of Uttar Pradesh. As the Chief Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh government, I monitored 22 key projects of the government. I continued monitoring even after I got retired and was appointed Chief Advisor of the government because all the projects are near completion. For instance, we are starting cancer OPD in hospitals. Lucknow Metro is also going for trial next month (December).
Has there been a rise in investment in the state? Are private companies showing interest to invest in Uttar Pradesh?
We have a very good IT and startup policy. We have a very dynamic electronics manufactur ing policy. In electronics section, we want to develop Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway as IT hub as they are showing potential in those areas. Therefore we are setting up three electronics manufacturing clusters in both these areas.
All handset manufacturers are being located at Noida-Greater Noida and Expressway whether it is Lava or Micromax. We are seeing an increased state of investment in UP.
We are developing IT city in Lucknow which is being developed with the help of HCL. We have already completed its work, actual training sessions have also started.
You are also Chairman of UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC), what have been its accomplishments so far?
We have made land available to the industries. About 1,500 new industries have been set up on UPSIDC allotted land in the past four and a half years. Now UPSIDC is building integrated townships, which is a new concept for us.
Another one is Trans Ganga city in Unnao district, Saraswati Hitech City in Allahabad. These are industry integrated townships. Work has started in both the upcoming cities and they will be completed in 2017. Allotment of land for residential as well as the industry is going on and people are showing lot of interest in that
How the Government of Uttar Pradesh is focusing on rural areas of the State?
We have started rural housing scheme -Lohia Gramin Awas Yojna. We are also providing solar light and fan package under this scheme.
In agriculture sector, we connected seeds availability with direct benefit transfer scheme. By registering farmers online, we are supplying subsidy directly to their account.
Every year around one lakh Lohia houses are being built. Under Indira Awas Scheme, only Rs.70,000 was granted to people who wanted to build a house, but now CM has raised this grant to three lakhs.
Second is Lohia Gram Yojna under which we select nearly 1,000 villages annually and all the new development projects are implemented there like building connected roads, electrification of the villages, proper schools, better veterinary doctors etc. In agriculture sector, we connected seeds availability with direct benefit transfer scheme. By registering farmers online, we are supplying subsidy directly to their account. We have covered 55,00,000 families under Samajwadi Pension Yojna under which we are providing Rs. 500 to the female member of the house.
Kindly share achievements of youg government in the fields of education and health?
In the health sector, we started 108 and 102 ambulance service. This service is being pro – vided even in the most backward areas of the state. We are also giving more emphasis on the cleaning of the government hospitals, providing better lab facilities to patients, better hospital management, providing more and better specialist doctors, free medicines and implementing its inventory control system. We have increased medical seats from 1,100 to 1,800. New medical colleges are also being opened. We are trying to maintain quality in the field of education.
What steps have been taken in the field of skill development to reduce the unemployability in the state?
UP has done very well in the field of skill development. More than five lakh people have been successfully trained. Over 40 lakh people have been registered for skill training and are being provided vocational training. More than one lakh people have already been provided jobs. We are organising job fairs where private companies have been called. We are also focusing on higher and technical education and polytechnics. To improve the quality of education there, we have personality development courses so that employability of a candidate can improve. We are focusing on small and medium industries and tourism.
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