Varanasi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, has in the past eight years seen a restoration of its “pristine glory” as a spiritual and cultural centre of the country, attracting over 1 crore tourists in a month.
He said “the city has seen a transformation of its appearance with better infrastructure, cleanliness and beautification of ghats and renovation of temples.”
The CM was addressing the ‘Prabuddha Jan Sammelan’ at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University ground in Varanasi.
“While earlier, the city witnessed the arrival of 1 crore tourists in a year, now 1 crore tourists visit the city in a month alone,” Adityanath said.
“Till 2016, sewer water used to flow on the roads and there were heaps of garbage on the streets while the condition of the ghats was pathetic in Kashi, but today the change is in front of all of us.
“Today, Kashi has four-lane connectivity from all sides. It is connected with all major cities of the country through air. Ghats have been beautified and the city cleaned. The city is emerging as a major educational and health centre,” he said.
Expressing his gratitude to the PM, Adityanath said that Modi introduced for the first time inland waterways in Kashi, which helped export of food grains, fruits, and vegetables from the state to foreign countries.
He also said that if BJP wins the municipal elections scheduled early next year, it would strengthen the ‘triple-engine model’– with the same party controlling the state, centre, and local civic body — of development, ensuring progress like a “bullet train.”
According to the CM, in Uttar Pradesh 45 lakh houses have been given to the poor and needy under PM Awas Yojana, benefitting around 2.5 crore people. Of these, 43,000 houses have been provided in Kashi alone, he claimed.
“Today India has become the fifth largest economy in the world, leaving behind Britain, which ruled the country for two hundred years.
“Apart from this, India is leading the G20, which controls 75 per cent of the world’s trade, has rights over 90 per cent patents, and collectively has over 85 per cent of GDP. India has got the opportunity to lead these 20 countries,” he said.
On employment, the CM said that 10 lakh “Agniveers” are being recruited across the country under Mission Rozgar, and these people once retired will be given jobs by state governments.
In UP, five lakh government jobs have been given to the youths, while 1.61 crore others have got jobs through schemes such as One District, One Product’ and Vishwakarma Shram Samman.
On the occasion, the CM gave gifts worth crores to the beneficiaries of various schemes run by the central and state governments.
He handed over the keys of the houses to the beneficiaries of the Prime Minister and Chief Minister’s housing schemes, and distributed tablets to students.
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