New Delhi: Shifting focus to ‘laggard’ Purvanchal region, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath inaugurated a mega 3-day webinar to prepare a roadmap for development of this region.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma and a team of ministers and senior government officials are partaking in the 3-day webinar in Gorakhpur to deliberate on the development prospects of region.

More than 300 scholars from across the country and world are participating in the brainstorming sessions on the challenges being faced by 28 districts of Purvanchal region.

UP Minister of State for Small, Medium Enterprises (MSME) Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh said that Purvanchal has been of special importance due to its merits and state government is continuously pushing to make its flagship program – One District, One Product (ODOP) a success in this region.
MSME Additional Chief Secretary Navneet Sehgal said that Purvanchal will become a new hotspot of Uttar Pradesh’s economy.

“There are all possibilities. It has world’s most fertile land, abundant water, rich human resources and markets in the form of population, the rich tradition of handicrafts in every district were in the region,” Sehgal said.

Make Purvanchal, most prosperous in the country, says CM Yogi

UP CM Yogi Adityanath said the present government would make eastern UP i.e. Purvanchal, the most prosperous region in the country.

“Over the years, there had been a deliberate attempt to malign the region as a laggard, he said, adding that even academia had put its stamp of approval on such a perception at one time,” said CM Yogi.

The chief minister made the comments in Gorakhpur while inaugurating a three-day webinar-cum-seminar on the development of Purvanchal at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay University campus.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi and Yogi Adityanath’s former Lok Sabha constituency Gorakhpur are both in Purvanchal.

Purvanchal’s merit & diversity offers great potential

Further underlining that Purvanchal was once considered among the richest areas of the country due to its merits, MSME Additional Chief Secretary Navneet Sehgal called for reclaiming its lost glory.

“Our products have not been competitive in the market due to non-updates with technology. Clusters of cottage industries gradually ended. In every respect, the Purvanchal was marked by backwardness. Exodus became permanent here. The earlier governments were also largely responsible for this” he said.

Corona has given us an opportunity to improve

Sehgal said that the world’s attitude towards China has changed due to the global pandemic of Corona. Those investing there want to take their investment to other countries. Countries like Japan are also helping their investors for this. In such a situation, it is also a great opportunity for Uttar Pradesh especially Purvanchal, the additional chief secretary MSME said.

He said there are immense possibilities in the field of farming, service sector and one district one product (ODOP). The need is to update them with technology in a timely manner, to increase capacity and quality of the product, to provide financial facilities as per the requirement and to make the market available.

Sehgal said that Purvanchal being the densest population of the world is therefore also the largest market. FMCG companies want to invest where there is a market and labor is cheaper to save expenses.

Economist Dr. Umesh Singh spoke about the possibilities of food processing, employment arising from it and nutritional security. Gallant Ispat CMD Chandra Prakash Agarwal suggested that the government should identify possibilities according to the region. Develop basic facilities according to the units to be set up.

Agarwal suggested to “take the cooperation of local universities or educational institutions in it”.