Niti Aayog lauds Yogi government's industrial development roadmap

Niti Aayog lauded the state for its work in the fields of sanitation, rural housing, water resources, power

India's federal policy think tank National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog on Tuesday lauded the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh for its industrial development roadmap.

Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said the notable thing about the incumbent state government was its feat of launching projects totalling over Rs 600 billion after following up on the memorandums of understanding (MoU) totalling about Rs 4.68 trillion signed with both domestic and foreign investors earlier this year.

He referred to the next proposed 'groundbreaking' ceremony in December 2019 to launch industrial projects worth an additional Rs 1 trillion to buttress his point on the enviable track record of the one-and-half-year-old Adityanath dispensation.

"The state government is progressing well on its industrial development agenda," Kumar said adding the One District, One Product (ODOP) scheme is also yielding results as the government had successfully roped in ecommerce major Amazon to promote traditional industries in 10 districts.

Addressing the media after meeting Adityanath and top UP officials, he claimed UP was treading well on its 'ease of doing business' landscape and was poised to be ranked among the most progressive states.

This was the third visit of the Niti Aayog team to Lucknow to review the progress of the government departments, especially on its set of suggestions to improve on the socioeconomic parameters

Replying to a question, Kumar observed any state rankings were based on historical data and since UP had been a laggard over the past several years, it would take some time to ascend vis-a-vis other states.

"The Niti Aayog is striving to reverse this trend and facilitate UP to climb up the ladder to the top, where it rightfully belongs by focussing on industry, improvement in agricultural sectors and crop diversification," he maintained.

The Aayog further lauded the state for its work in the fields of sanitation, rural housing, water resources, power etc.

Meanwhile, UP health minister and state government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh said under the previous regimes, the state's graph had dipped considerably and it would also take some years to improve going forward.

"When we came to power, the Niti Aayog showed us the mirror as to where the state actually stood. We are working on its suggestions for ushering in sustainable development," he quipped.

However, the Aayog has flagged the state to speed up works in some areas, including seeding of Aadhar data to weed out bogus beneficiaries, fresh recruitments to fill up cadre vacancies, consolidation of government-run schools etc.

"The good part is that authentic data is now available for analysis and taking policy decisions," Kumar informed. He said the Aayog was working on Bundelkhand package to improve the level of water availability in the arid zone spanning both UP and Madhya Pradesh.