Centre Spending More On Ads Than Projects: Akhilesh Yadav Slams Centre

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party government failed to double the income of the farmers as promised by the party rather the government is spending more on advertisements than on projects.

Speaking to the reporters, Mr Yadav said, "BJP showed dreams that farmers'' income will be doubled by 2022, where are the farmers with increased incomes? They spend more on advertisements than on projects. Huge hoardings are put that youngsters are getting jobs, where have they given jobs in Uttar Pradesh?"

"Samajwadi Party gave laptops to the youth and BJP did lathi-charge on them. SP gave Lohia Awaas to the poor and BJP drove over farmers and killed them in Lakhimpur Kheri. Samajwadi Party believes in development whereas they believe in changing names," he added.

Talking about the inauguration of various projects by the state government, Mr Yadav claimed that the majority of the projects inaugurated by the government were started when his government was in power.

"The majority of the projects that BJP inaugurates were started by Samajwadi Party. Gorakhpur AIIMS could never be built if SP did not provide land for it. People in Uttar Pradesh no more want the ''Yogi'' government, they want a ''Yogya'' government," Mr Yadav said.

Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the Saryu Nahar National Project in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur and made a scathing attack at Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav saying that he is waiting for someone to "claim credit" for the project.

The Prime Minister said when the work on this project started, its cost was less than Rs 100 crore. Today it has been completed after spending about 10 thousand crores. The country has already paid 100 times more for the negligence of the previous governments.

"If it is government money, then why should I care? This thinking had become the biggest obstacle in the balanced and all-round development of the country. This thinking also kept the Saryu canal project hanging". The Prime Minister said ''We have done more work in the Saryu canal project than what was done in 5 decades in less than 5 years. This is a double engine government. This is the speed of work of the double engine government, our priority is to finish the project on time," PM Modi said.

The work on the project started in 1978 but due to lack of continuity of budgetary support, interdepartmental coordination and adequate monitoring, it got delayed and was not completed even after nearly four decades.