PM interacted with villagers from six UP districts at the virtual launch.
Highlights
- UP has been tacking the COVID-19 issue proactively and effectively: PM
- UP death count fraction of 4 European nations with similar population: PM
- PM made the comments at launch of job scheme for migrant workers in UP
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said Uttar Pradesh, with a population size the same as four European countries badly hit by the coronavirus, had only a fraction of their death count because of its singular efforts in fighting the deadly contagion.
"England, France, Italy and Spain - these countries at one time had conquered the world and were the biggest powers of the world, but if you add up the populations of all these countries it comes to 24 crore, but in India, UP alone has 24 crore. How effective UP has been can be seen from the fact that the four European nations together had 1,30,000 deaths due to COVID-19. But in UP, the number of deaths is 600. It shows that UP has been tacking the issue proactively and effectively," said the Prime Minister.
"But death is death, and every life matters and it is sad that any lives were lost, be it in India or elsewhere in the world."
Interacting with villagers in UP while launching via video the ''Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rozgar Abhiyan'', PM Modi also showered praise on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's handling of the virus fight and the crisis of migrants stranded by the lockdown.
"Yogiji understood the seriousness of the situation and instead of complaining and worrying, he and his team went on a war footing to ensure that 240 million people could be safe and control the spread of the disease as much as possible. When his father passed away recently, Yogiji put the people of Uttar Pradesh above his personal loss and continued to work to ensure that hospitals, beds, and other facilities like testing centres were opened," PM Modi said.
The PM interacted with villagers from six districts of Uttar Pradesh while launching the scheme to promote local entrepreneurship and job opportunities in partnership with industrial associations.
He advised that wearing a mask and "Do Gaz Doori" or physical distancing are the only medicines for coronavirus until there is a vaccine.
"Till such time that we don't get a vaccine for coronavirus, the only way to stop it from infecting us is to maintain good personal hygiene, wash our hands with soap regularly, cover our mouths with a mask when we go out of our homes and most importantly, maintain Do Gaz Doori (six-foot distance)," PM Modi said, holding up his stole as an example of a makeshift mask.