Central schemes were ignored before 2017, swiftly implemented in Yogi govt: Hardeep S Puri

Lucknow, February 12:

On the last day of the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit, a session was held on the topic ‘Re-imagining Cities as Growth Centers for New Uttar Pradesh’. Union Housing and Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister A.K. Sharma participated in the session.

During the session, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, “The development and implementation of schemes in Uttar Pradesh have accelerated significantly since Yogi Adityanath took over as appointed Chief Minister of thge state in 2017.”

Recalling his old association with Lucknow, Puri said: “I continue to visit the city every second or third month. The previous government had little interest in implementing the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, which was launched by the Central government in June 2015. Only 17,000 homes could be developed under the programme since June 2015, that is 17 months, in the largest state in the nation.”

After Yogi Adityanath took over the office in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, over 17 lakh houses were built in the next 17 months. These figures are enough to tell the success story of Uttar Pradesh. Today, Uttar Pradesh is number one in implementing the schemes of the Center, he added.

He further said that the pace with which India is moving ahead to fulfill the Prime Minister’s vision, the country will become the world’s largest economy by 2040 itself.

“Our cities are the transformers of our economy. Metro service was started by respected Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji. Currently, our metro service ranks the fifthin the world. Within the next several months, we will rank among the top three in the world based on our current projects.”

Praising Uttar Pradesh CM, Puri said, “The way Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is working, I have no doubt in saying that Uttar Pradesh is fast becoming the growth engine of the Indian economy. The world will soon see this Global Investors Summit’s revolutionary impact.”

During the session, Urban Development Minister of Uttar Pradesh, AK Sharma said, “I have learned a lot from Hardeep Singh Puri ji, his work regarding urban development is unprecedented.”

“When I was appointed a minister, I understood that cleanliness was central to a city’s growth. I thus launched a campaign to clean the city. The campaign used to start at 5am”, he said. Minister AK Sharma stated that this explained the topic of debate “re-imagination.” “Numerous people have told me that their house’s landmark was a garbage. However, the situation has completely changed today.

Amrit Abhijat, Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh, and Nitin Ramesh Gokarn, Principal Secretary, Housing also presented their views during the discussion. Debasish Biswas from Deloitte Group, Rejit Mathews from Urban Development World Resources Institute, Pritam Mehra from CBRE India, Ashwinder Singh from Residential Bhartiya City, Gurmeet Singh Arora from Rajco Metal Industries and Vinay Kumar Singh MD NCRTC also shared their experiences.