LUCKNOW: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on his first visit to Varanasi after the BJP’s landslide victory in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in March this year, on Friday, said development was the solution to all the problems in the country and accused the previous governments of destroying the public exchequer in their bid to win elections.
PM’s two-day visit to the holy city assumes significance as it has been strategically planned when by-election to two crucial seats—Gorakhpur and Phulpur—are due in next six months. The two seats have been vacated by CM Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya respectively after both were elected to the UP Legislative Council last fortnight.
The PM also launched several development projects worth over Rs 1,000 crore for his Lok Sabha constituency.
While in an oblique reference to the slow pace of development of the region during the previous regimes both at Centre and state, the PM said that if he laid the foundation stone of any project, he ensured to inaugurate it too. “Otherwise, generally, foundation stone is laid by one government and inauguration is done following dispensations after years depending on the will of the rulers and their political priorities.”
WATCH: PM Modi at launch of several development projects in Varanasi
The PM was referring to inauguration of two over bridges over the Ganges in the holy city worth `98 crore and Rs 92 crore respectively. Both the bridges were conceptualised years back and the foundation stone was laid by former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav in April 2005. Caught in the politics, work on it nearly halted during Mayawati regime in 2007. It was restarted when Akhilesh came to power in 2012 but failed to get the desired pace and couldn’t be completed during his tenure.
He directed his dig at the previous SP regime well indicating that many times the projects were just announced and laid for vested political interests and never got completed. “Jis prakalp ka shilanyas hum karte hain uska udghatan bhi hum karte hain (If I lay foundation stone of a project, I inaugurate it, too),” the PM claimed adding that projects completed in time opened the doors for development.
The highlight of his visit was the flagging off of Mahamana Express between Varanasi and Gujarat’s industrial hub Surat and Vadodara, the parliamentary seat which PM Modi had vacated three years ago to retain Varanasi. The new weekly train will run from Varanasi every Friday and from Vadodara every Wednesday. The 1,531-km journey between the two cities is expected to take about 28 hours.