UP CM Yogi Adityanath unveils statue of former PM Chandra Shekhar in Ballia

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday unveiled the statue of former Prime Minister late Chandra Shekhar in Ballia district and inaugurated and laid foundation stones of development projects worth Rs 80 crore.

Addressing a public meeting on the occasion, CM Yogi said that very little of Ballia's potential has been exploited so far, urging Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to come forward to take the agricultural products of the district to the international market.

"This can help achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of doubling farmer's income and also contribute towards making Uttar Pradesh a USD 1 trillion economy. Cargos and the inland waterways service introduced between Haldia and Varanasi, which goes via Ballia, can play a vital role in facilitating fresh vegetables' export from the district," said the Chief Minister.

Adityanath said that the government is committed to supporting farmers from "Beej to Bazar", adding that attention should be paid to the attractive packaging.

He also said that some FPOs have been presented with registration certificates to carry the work forward, but more need to follow suit.

The Chief Minister also directed people's representatives to come up with a proposal for a medical college in Ballia fast so that necessary action could be taken by the government in this regard as part of its larger goal to build a medical college in each district of the state.

He said that 35 new medical colleges have been built in the state since 2017.

He also emphasised the need for increasing the number of doctors at the hospital at former PM Chandra Shekhar's native village Ibrahim Patti and link more and more people with the Central Government's Ayushaman Bharat and State Government's Jan Aarogya Yojana.

"Work needed to be done on multi fronts including education, health, agriculture and tourism in the district to increase people's income manifold and provide employment to thousands of youth in Ballia district," he said.

The Chief Minister further pointed out that one crore devotees visited Kashi Vishwanath during Sawan, which benefitted the hotel industry, taxi drivers and others.

He stressed the importance of empowering women and making them self-reliant by linking them with self-help groups (SHGs) to carry out works under various schemes such as Rural Livelihood Mission, Child Development and Nutrition etc as well as engaging them in dairy production.

He said that the training of women should be organized in various skills like tailoring, weaving etc and they should be provided with toolkits.

Paying his tributes to former PM Chandra Shekhar, CM Yogi said, "He was a 'Jan Nayak', a leader in independent India, who rose above party lines to do value-based politics and was popular not only within India but also abroad, including Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh."

He said that the departed leader rose against the worst move to crush democracy and also supported the Swadeshi movement of the RSS, adding that he contributed to the strengthening of parliamentary democracy.

The Chief Minister said that the late Chandra Shekhar gave a new identity to Ballia.