Launching a scathing attack on the opposition parties, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday exhorted people to not fall for their promises as they keep changing their statements.
He claimed that there had been no riot, farmer suicides, or deaths due to starvation after BJP came to power in the state.
The Chief Minister said this while laying the foundation stone of an ethanol plant, to be set up on 65.61 acres of land at Balrampur Sugar Mills Complex, Maijapur, at a cost of Rs 450 crore.
He said similar works for the state's development could have been done earlier also, but the previous governments engaged in nepotism instead and misled people.
"Who had stopped Congress? Who had stopped ‘Babua' and ‘Bua' (Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati)? They had got full opportunity to work, but during their tenures work was done not for development but for ‘bhai-bhatijawaad' (family and relatives), caste and region,” he said.
“There was dishonesty, corruption, and riots. Do not fall for their misleading talk. They change their statements with such frequency, it can put even a chameleon to shame," Yogi said.
The Chief Minister raked up yet against Akhilesh's ‘Jinnah' comment to say that those who believe in the founder of Pakistan engaged in attacking faith and “instigate riots” in their tenure.
"Rioters, who are followers of Jinnah, how can they understand the sweetness of sugarcane,” he said targeting specially Akhilesh Yadav.
He also accused the former Chief Minister of withdrawing cases against “terrorists” playing vote bank politics.
“Remember, the cases on terrorists who attacked the birthplace of Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram were shamelessly withdrawn by the previous government.
“Thanks to the Allahabad High Court who did not allow this intention of the previous government to succeed,” Yogi Adityanath said.
In 2013, the then SP-ruled UP government had issued an order for withdrawal of cases against Ayodhya serial blast accused as it believed them to be “innocent Muslims” implicated in false cases. The order was stayed by the Allahabad Court.
Yogi Adityanath alleged that during previous governments farmers were committing suicide and there was no procurement mechanism for their produce, and the fate of the state swung only under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The payment of sugar cane is being made on right time. Procurement centres for wheat and paddy are being set up. And money is going directly in farmers' bank accounts at the rate of MSP. This was not happening before 2017,” he said.
Speaking about the ethanol plant, Yogi said its construction will help farmers extract diesel and petrol from their own farm produce in their fields.
"Now the farmers will also extract diesel and petrol in their fields along with their sugar cane once this plant comes into being.
“With ethanol production, the money which used to go to foreign land and Arab (countries) will now go in the pockets of farmers and when they will be prosperous the country will be prosperous," he said.
The ethanol plant is going to be the biggest in Asia once completed, it has been claimed.
Giving an account of the welfare works undertaken by the government, he said "poor who have no caste or religion could have been given houses, toilets, power free ration facility earlier too but it happened only after PM Modi and Yogi Adityanath came over.”
“The free ration meant for the poor, earlier used to go to Saifai (the native village of Akhilesh Yadav)".
"In 2016, when the SP government was in power, I was MP from Gorakhpur and seeing hunger deaths in Kushinagar I went there and came to know that the ration cards of the locals were with a Samajwadi Party man," the Chief Minister claimed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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