LUCKNOW: Urging the electorate to re-elect the BJP government in UP, Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari on Monday promised to make the highways better than the European standards and match them with the US parameters in the next five years.
“I will make that happen. I will do it to fulfil my promise. I never lie,” said the Union Minister in Jaunpur, the eastern UP district adjoining Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gadkari made the promise while dedicating four national highways and other development schemes worth Rs 1,123 crore to the people of Jaunpur in the presence of UP CM Yogi. They also launched another four national highway projects worth Rs 3,037 crore in Mirzapur on Monday.
Addressing a public rally in the Machchlishahr Assembly constituency of Jaunpur, Gadkari urged people to trust him and back the Yogi government for the development to take place at a higher pace in future. “Back Yogiji, elect the BJP again. I will bring in (road) development of another Rs 5 lakh crore in the state. When such work will happen, UP’s road infrastructure will match the US,” he said.
The Union minister claimed that he had a ministry with sufficient funds. “States will get tired seeking money but we won’t get tired of giving out. I assure you development worth a lakh crore rupees in UP, let the double engine government be formed in the state for next five years,” said Gadkari. The minister also praised the Yogi government over the law and order scenario and dismantling the organised crime syndicates being run by the mafia for the last so many years.
“In UP, the state government has bulldozed the mafia and goonda raj. Today the entire country is praising CM Yogi for action on mafia as he had brought the state back on the development track,” said Gadkari. The Union minister claimed that there was no place for dynastic politics in the BJP.
“We are not a clan-specific or family-specific party. We are a cadre-based party of patriots,” said Gadkari asking the people to compare the state of affairs in UP when BJP was not in power with the situation today. He added that CM Yogi was taking the state towards ‘Ramrajya’ as perceived by Mahatma Gandhi.
Meanwhile, addressing the gathering on the occasion, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said that earlier governments had narrow thinking which was limited to one family only. “Now for PM Modi, 135 crore countrymen are a family hence big development projects are getting implemented,” he added.
Talking about the taint of corruption which UP had earlier, CM Yogi said during previous regimes, with the announcements of vacancies, the whole family used to go out for extortion in the name of providing the job. “But today we have given five lakh jobs and no one can raise finger on a single appointment because of the transparency in the process,” he maintained.
Taking a jibe over SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s statement over the anti-COVID vaccine saying he would not get a jab as it was a BJP vaccine, CM Yogi said: “The vaccine which is being administered free of cost is saving people from COVID. Now the public will oppose those who opposed the vaccine,” said UP CM.