LUCKNOW: On a business trip to Mumbai, UP CM Yogi Adityanath responded to the diatribe of Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackrey saying that the Bollywood would continue to work in Mumbai but a new film city would be built in Uttar Pradesh.
He was speaking to reporters in Mumbai after listing the Rs 200 crore bond of Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) at the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning.
The UP CM said: “Nobody is taking anything away. This is an open competition. Whoever can give social security and a conducive atmosphere for working, will get the business.”
“Bollywood will work in Mumbai but a new film city will come up in UP. We will build a world-class film city with all the infrastructural facilities. I spoke to filmmakers and the people concerned. We are not stealing any state’s investment,” CM Yogi maintained.
Notably, ahead of CM Yogi’s visit to Mumbai, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, on Tuesday, had said he would not let anybody “forcibly” take businesses away from the state.
Yogi said that there were many factors that drive investments, including stability of the state government.
“Uttar Pradesh has the largest population -- 24 crore—in the country and so it is the biggest job creator with 1.25 lakh jobs,” the CM said, highlighting the achievements of his government.
However, in a sharp reaction to CM Yogi’s statement, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut sought to know the status of the proposed Noida film city saying it was difficult to replicate Mumbai’s film industry elsewhere. Mumbai has a glorious film history and past.
Adityanath had earlier unveiled an ambitious plan to set up a film city and rolled out an open offer to the film fraternity to come to Uttar Pradesh for filmmaking.
Meanwhile, earlier, listing the LMC bonds on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), CM yogi said it was a matter of pride for UP that the Lucknow Municipal Corporation had raised Rs 200 crore through its bonds.
“It shows the trust of the investors UP has earned during the last three-and-a-half years. It will augment our effort to improve infrastructure in urban areas. It shows the improvement in the industrial climate of the state and the trust the investors have reposed in the machinery,” said Adityanath.
As per CM Yogi, Lucknow Municipal Corporation had become the first civic body in north India to issue bonds, even as the process of issuing municipal bonds by civic bodies started in the country in 1997.
He claimed that Ghaziabad local body was the next on the state’s list to be raising money through the issuance of municipal bonds. As Lucknow now becomes the ninth city in India to have raised municipal bonds and the first city to issue such a bond after the launch of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. LMC had raised Rs 200 crore through the bond issue last month.
Adityanath called the listing a historic moment and added that other cities including Ghaziabad, Agra, Kanpur, Prayagraj, and Varanasi would also be using this route for raising resources.
“I am confident that very soon, we will be present here with Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation’s bonds,” he said, speaking at Asia’s oldest stock bourse BSE.
Adityanath said raising resources through the bond issue would improve the accounting practices and other systems at a municipal body, and also helps deliver services to the denizens as the required resources get raised.
He also appreciated the financial capital’s role in resource mobilization, saying the “Mahalaxmi Temple” was aiding in the economic progress of the country for over a century.
CM Yogi reached Maharashtra capital on Tuesday evening and met actor Akshay Kumar at a hotel in South Mumbai over dinner.