Niti Aayog Meeting: Committed to making UP a $1-tn economy by ’25 with world-class infra, says Yogi

“To make UP Rs 80 lakh crore economy by 2025, our cities will have to come forward as a growth engine by attracting investments and increasing employment generation. Urban development has to be a growth engine as well as address the challenges of housing/slum, water supply and solid waste management, air quality/pollution, livelihood and public transport. UP is doing effective work in the field of municipal finance, town planning and administrative structure and citizen-centred administration…,” the CM said.

Good and effective governance, skill development, rapid decision-making process and targeted policies and rules were proving useful in this direction, he added.

On farming front, Adityanath said that work was underway to strengthen digital agricultural framework to ensure that the benefits of the government’s schemes reach the farmers of the state. “As many as three crore farmers in UP have been registered under the digitised farmers’ database, who have received Rs 2,605 crore in the last five years under various schemes. UP is the leading state in the country in terms of distribution of grants through DBT by developing a digitised database for farmers,” the CM said, adding that exercise of linking farmers’ database with land records will be completed by August 15.

He also said that his government was taking phase-wise action to promote natural farming. “For example, the scheme of cow-based farming has been approved in seven districts of Bundelkhand region… A target has also been set to practice cow-based farming on 500 hectares in each development block of the seven districts,” Adityanath said.

The CM added that the work of the GIS survey in 17 municipal corporations was in progress to improve the financial condition of the municipal bodies, due to which doubling of house tax is possible by the end of this financial year.

On improving urban infrastructure, the CM said that municipal bonds worth Rs 200 crore have been issued in Lucknow and Rs 150 crore in Ghaziabad. “This amount is being used for the construction of residential complexes and sewage treatment plants (STPs), which will also generate revenue in future. The goal is to have a partnership with international finance agencies and the formation of Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation, which will also generate employment and encourage investment in small local bodies,” he said.

He said that along the lines of “aspirational districts”, it has been decided to select 100 aspirational development blocks in the state and get them developed to the prescribed standards.

“Whatever the state has been successful in doing today, the biggest support has been the guidance and leadership of the prime minister (Narendra Modi). The mantra of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishvas, sabka prayas’ given by the prime minister, has become the foundation for the ‘sarvasparshi’ (omniscient) and ‘sarvasamaveshi’ (all inclusive) development of the state,” Adityanath added.