Lucknow Metro logs ridership of 30 million

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 28, 2021

Lucknow Metro has achieved a landmark of logging total ridership of 30 million despite the abrupt shutdown of its services during lockdown last year.

The metro rail services were commercially launched in Lucknow on September 5, 2017.

On this occasion, UP Metro Rail Corporation Limited (UPMRC) managing director Kumar Keshav thanked the passengers with the assurance that it would keep providing world class services to the ‘City of Nawabs’.

He noted in view of Covid-19, Lucknow Metro was taking every possible care to provide the safest journey to the people. “Measures have been taken to ensure sanitisation and physical distancing at all metro stations and trains.”

He informed Lucknow Metro had become the first metro service in the country to sanitise the coaches by UV (ultraviolet) rays. “As a result of these efforts, ridership of Lucknow Metro has steadily improved. With daily ridership of 42,000, Lucknow Metro has been able to recover 65 per cent of daily ridership. This is the fastest ridership recovery in comparison to any other metro services in the country.”

On a daily average, Lucknow Metro trains complete 343 trips on the operational North-South Corridor stretching from airport to Munshipulia via Charbagh railway station.

Yogi commits Rs 900 crore for cultural, religious tourism

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 24, 2021

Furthering the cultural and nationalist agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Uttar Pradesh government has allocated about Rs 900 crore Budget for 2021-22 financial year to promote religious, spiritual and cultural tourism.

b

The funds will be utilised towards upgrading tourism infrastructure in key tourist hotspots of Ayodhya, Varanasi, Chitrakoot, Lucknow, Vindhyachal etc.

According to the UP Annual Budget 2021-22, the state will spend Rs 300 crore for constructing an approach road to the Lord Ram temple. An additional Rs 100 crore will e incurred towards different development and beautification works in the temple town.

Similarly, Rs 100 crore will be spent on tourism related expenditure in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency of Varanasi. Under the flagship Mukhyamantri Paryatan Sthal Vikas Yojana, the UP government will invest Rs 200 crore.

An allocation of Rs 20 crore has been made for various tourism schemes in Chitrakoot, besides Rs 30 crore for development works in Vindhyachal region and Naimisharanya.

In view of centenary year celebrations of the famous ‘Chouri-Choura’ incident related to India's freedom movement, a provision of Rs 15 crore has been made for year round celebrations of the Chouri-Choura Shatabadi Mahotsava.

The Budget has allocated Rs 8 crore for the construction of UP Tribal Museum in Lucknow, while Rs 4 crore will be incurred for the development of a freedom fighter gallery in Shahjahanpur district.

Meanwhile, the Yogi Adityanath government has also decided to confer ‘Uttar Pradesh Gaurav Samman’ to eminent writers and artists who had not been decorated by any award in the state. Under this scheme, a maximum of 5 people will be honoured with a sum of Rs 11 lakh each every year.

UP permits ethanol production from sugarcane juice

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 23, 2021

Amid the mounting sugarcane arrears in the current crushing season, the Uttar Pradesh government has allowed distilleries to produce ethanol directly from cane juice and syrup.

This is aimed at reducing excess sugar inventories, increasing liquidity with the sugar mills for speedier payment to farmers and increasing ethanol availability for the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme.

According to the state government, surplus sugar production has depressed sugar prices, thereby impacting mills’ capacity to pay farmers. Currently, the UP mills have arrears of about Rs 12,000 crore in the current 2020-21 crushing season.

The fresh UP cabinet decision will empower mills, having captive distilleries, to choose between production of sugar or ethanol from cane juice, depending upon the viability of market price of sugar, further improving their income and thereby better cane payment to farmers.

The ex-distillery price of ethanol derived from cane juice is Rs 62.85 per litre while that from C- heavy molasses is Rs 45.69 per litre, for the current ethanol supply year beginning December 2020. “Higher remunerative prices for ethanol produced from cane juice will help in reduction of cane arrears,” a senior sugar department official noted.

Sugarcane juice denotes primary juice, secondary juice, mixed juice and clear juice as obtained by ‘sulphitation’ or defecation process. Sugarcane syrup means concentrated juice having total dissolved solid content not less than 50 brix.

Ethanol produced from cane juice shall be used only for EBP programme. As no sugar or molasses is produced in the process, the income from ethanol derived from cane juice and syrup shall be tagged for payment of cane dues, he informed.

Earlier, the state government had permitted ethanol production from B- heavy molasses. Ever since, more than 40 state distilleries have been producing ethanol form B-heavy molasses, resulting in a significant increase in ethanol production in UP, which tops the tally in the country.

UP incurs Rs 12,500 crore/year for cheaper power to farmers, poor

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 22, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government incurs Rs 12,500 crore annually for providing cheaper power to the farmers and poor households in the state.

According to UP energy minister Shrikant Sharma, the amount is provided as subsidy to state power utility UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL). “This subsidy amount was merely Rs 5,600 crore in the previous regime.”

The farmers and poor households are being supplied electricity at the subsidised tariff of Rs 1.20 and Rs 3 per unit (up to 100 units per month) against the procurement/generation cost of Rs 7.50 per unit incurred by the UPPCL, he claimed.

He said the state farmers were compelled to irrigate their agricultural field with diesel gensets, which cost nearly Rs 25 per unit, due to sub-optimum electricity supply to the rural areas in the earlier regime. Now, the farmers are getting 10 hrs of electricity for irrigation purposes, which has pared their cost to Rs 1.20 per unit, he added.

HUDCO to give Rs 2,900 crore loan for Ganga Expressway

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 18, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government has inked an agreement with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) to borrow Rs 2,900 crore loan for the proposed 600 km Ganga Expressway project.

The funds would be used towards land acquisition of the mega greenfield project, which is estimated to cost almost Rs 36,000 crore. The acquisition of land would be piloted by state nodal agency UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA).

According to UPEIDA CEO Awanish Kumar Awasthi, the land acquisition, totalling 7,438 hectares across 522 villages spanning 12 districts, would alone cost about Rs 9,255 crore to the state government for the Ganga Expressway project.

Listed on the NSE and BSE, HUDCO is a central government-owned corporation under the administrative control of the union ministry of housing and urban affairs.

Ganga Expressway will traverse Meerut, Amroha, Bulandshahar, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratagarh and Prayagraj districts. It is among the most ambitious projects of the Yogi Adityanath government.

It would join the growing league of other operational or under-construction big expressway projects in UP viz. Yamuna Expressway, Agra-Lucknow Expressway, Purvanchal Expressway, Gorakhpur Link Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway.

‘Paperless’ UP Budget Session 2021-22 starts tomorrow

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 17, 2021

The ‘paperless’ Uttar Pradesh Annual Budget Session 2021-22 of the state legislature begins tomorrow.

Just like the central government, the Yogi Adityanath government will also table a ‘paperless’ Budget on Monday. The nearly 500 members of the state legislative assembly and council will receive the digital copy of the UP Budget on their respective iPads.

For the first time, the state has not printed physical copies of the Budget, but will upload the digital version on the official website. Recently, the UP legislators were imparted digital training to use their iPads for the official and legislative works in wake of the impending sittings.

The government had earlier asked the legislators to purchase Apple iPads costing up to Rs 50,000 each, which would be reimbursed by the exchequer. The strength of the UP legislative and council is 403 and 100 respectively.

The Budget Session will commence with the address by Governor Anandiben Patel to the joint sitting of both the houses. The Budget Session is expected to last till March 10 with several holidays falling in between.

The last Annual Budget of the Adityanath government is expected to hit the historic mark of Rs 5.5 trillion, which would be nearly 7.5 per cent higher than UP Annual Budget 2020-21 of Rs 5.12 trillion tabled last year.

Meanwhile, the sittings would conform to the safety protocols with all the legislators and the staff of the two houses, including security personnel, being subjected to the Covid-19 tests.

In the backdrop of the farm protests at the Delhi borders, the opposition parties are expected to corner the Yogi government and paint the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dispensation as anti-farmer.

Besides, the issue of pending arrears of sugarcane, which top Rs 12,000 crore in UP for the current 2020-21 crushing season, is likely to be raised by the opposition. Other important issues of law and order, unemployment etc will also be highlighted by the opposition benches to attack the Yogi government, which will complete four years in office next month.

On its part, the state government is likely to provide generous allocation to the agricultural sector in run up to the coming state panchayat polls in the next couple of months.

The pandemic is expected to cast a shadow on the Budget in the form of higher allocations towards social welfare schemes, such as pension and scholarship schemes, to boost the socioeconomic firmament.

The government could soften its revenue targets to accommodate the industrial and services sectors, which are still facing the pandemic challenges in the form of slowdown in demand.

The state would need to provide funds for flagship projects, including expressways, airports, bridges, tourism etc, to ensure that the civil works are not impeded for the paucity of finances during the crucial 2021-22 election year.

UP Police launches digital handle for women safety

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 12, 2021

 

UP Women Power Line 1090, the women safety wing of Uttar Pradesh Police, today launched a mega digital outreach to create general awareness through the popular social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter etc.

 

1090 or ‘Dus Nabbe’ as it is popularly known in UP is a dedicated helpline for women who want to report harassment, cyber-crime, stalking or phone-related abuse.

 

Under the digital outreach, the 1090 wing will proactively reach out to people, especially women and girls, and capture data signals to device integrated solutions.

 

Addressing the media here, UP additional director general (ADG) of police Neera Rawat shared the digital outreach roadmap for ‘Digital Chakravyuh’ (360 degree ecosystem for women safety).

 

She narrated the technical edge of having a cross channel digital strategy comprising a team of data scientists to generate awareness and encourage women to report incidents of harassment and crimes. The key strategies involve psychometric profiling, targeting offenders, predictive analytics, community participation, audience engagement etc to generate awareness for an exponential outreach.

 

Earlier, a pilot project was launched targetting more than 10 million people in six districts to test the digital outreach roadmap before the actual pan UP rollout.

 

Rawat informed 1090 had adopted modern technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning for seamless delivery of services. There are more than 110 million internet users in UP, of which 66 per cent belong to the rural areas.

UP plans toys cluster in Modi’s Varanasi constituency

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 11, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government has planned to set up four toys manufacturing clusters in the state, including one in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency of Varanasi.

The remaining three clusters would be set up in Gorakhpur – the pocket borough of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Jhansi and Chitrakoot districts.

The state is looking to tap the voluminous domestic toys space in the country, which is currently dominated by cheap imports from mainly China, to the tune of nearly 90 per cent of the market. The domestic toys market is estimated at Rs 20,000 crore annually.

“These clusters will not only promote the toys industry in the state, but create a large number of jobs as well,” UP additional chief secretary, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), Navneet Sehgal said here.

In fact, the Adityanath government has also proposed to develop a mega Toy City in Greater Noida to take on the Dragon on this turf. The Toy City project is estimated to attract investment of Rs 3,000 crore and create direct employment opportunities for 50,000 people.

“There is an increasing demand for traditional terracotta and other toys manufactured in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Jhansi and Chitrakoot regions. The proposed toys clusters will introduce modern technologies to entrepreneurs and make available quality toys to the consumers at affordable prices,” he noted.

The Indian toys manufacturers have long been demanding the government(s) to facilitate the setting up of clusters across different states to counter the large volume of imports from China and other countries.

UP to promote textile industry, plans mega parks

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 10, 2021

To promote the textile sector, the Uttar Pradesh government has proposed to set up Mega Textile Parks in Kanpur and Gorakhpur districts.

Taking the agenda forward, the state is preparing to send a proposal to the Centre in this regard. UP textile minister Sidharth Nath Singh said the two parks will generate large number of employment opportunities for the state’s youth.

In Union Budget 2021-22, the Centre has proposed to set up seven textile parks in India over the next few years.

Singh noted Kanpur had traditionally been a major textile centre with big mills operated by the National Textile Corporation and other companies. Kanpur is also famous for its quality knitwear, hosiery, leather garmenting etc.

Besides, Gorakhpur is equally reckoned as a textile hub in the Purvanchal (Eastern UP) region with several handloom, powerloom and knitwear spinning units functioning there.

UP government to deploy 700 electric buses in 14 cities

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 9, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to deploy 700 electric buses in 14 cities with an investment of more than Rs 1,100 crore on the fleet and the charging infrastructure costs.

The green mobility project, which was cleared by the Yogi Adityanath cabinet in October 2019, was delayed due to the pandemic last year. However, the state has put the proposal in top gear so that these buses could start to ply in select urban centres soon.

Recently, UP urban development minister Ashutosh Tandon has directed officials to expedite the process of acquiring the electric buses for an early deployment.

Under phase II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) Scheme of the Centre, 11 cities viz. Lucknow, Meerut, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Agra, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Moradabad, Aligarh, Jhansi and Bareilly were selected by the union heavy industries and public enterprises ministry for plying of 600 midi air-conditioned electric buses. In addition, the state proposed to ply 100 electric buses in 3 other towns as well namely Gorakhpur, Shahjahanpur and Mathura-Vrindavan.

Earlier, the state had cleared the bidding document to run these buses on ‘gross cost contract model’ by selecting the operator through an open bidding. The central government will incur 33 per cent of the cost of these buses procured under the FAME Scheme.

Each midi electric bus is expected to cost Rs 1.3 crore (total Rs 910 crore for 700 buses) and the charging infra will entail total investment of Rs 175 crore (one charger for 4 buses). Besides, each electric bus depot would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 2.32 crore, which pegs the total project cost at more than Rs 1,100 crore.

Currently, 40 air-conditioned electric buses are being plied in the state capital of Lucknow under the flagship scheme to promote electric vehicles (EV) for public mobility in India.

According to an earlier estimate of the state, nearly 200,000 charging stations would be set up in UP to cater to the public and private EVs. The Adityanath government is looking at attracting private investment of Rs 40,000 crore by 2024-25 and creation of 50,000 new job opportunities in the sector under the new state EV policy.

UP to invest Rs 25 crore to establish village ‘haats’

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 7, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to invest Rs 25 crore in setting up rural markets or ‘haats’ to facilitate the spot sale of farm produce at remunerative prices.

The state government will set up 53 village ‘haats’ for the benefit of agricultural and horticultural farmers, and to catalyse its flagship agenda of doubling the farmers’ income, according to government sources.

With the availability of markets near villages, the farmers will be able to buy all farm related items too. It will lead to reduction in the cost of transporting farm produce to distant markets, and thus save a considerable amount of their time and resources, the government feels.

While, the ‘haats’ will facilitate the ready sale of all kinds of farm crops viz. food grains, fruits, vegetables etc, they will also have the provision of robust silos to store food grains and crops.

Recently, Amazon-backed food and grocery retailer More Retail has also evinced interest in setting up farm-centric supermarkets in UP.

Last month, the UP government had launched a mega three-week farmers’ outreach programme titled ‘Kisan Kalyan Mission’ on January 6, which covered all the 75 districts of the state. Under the programme, the government collaborated with progressive farmers, scientists and farming experts to propagate modern and scientific farming methods for cutting down on farm input costs for higher yield and profitability.

There are an estimated 23 million farmers’ households in UP, of which more than 21 million or 90 per cent are small and marginal farmers with fragmented land holdings and subsisting on low farm income.

UP revenues jump to Rs 12,717 cr in Jan 2021

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 6, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government saw its revenue collection jump by more than 28 per cent to Rs 12,717 crore in January 2021 compared to the corresponding month last financial year.

In January 2020, the tax and non-tax revenue of the state stood at Rs 9,921 crore, an increase of over 28 per cent or Rs 2,796 crore compared to January 2021. Now, the state government has already achieved 92 per cent of its revenue target for the current financial year 2020-21 with two months still at hand.

Under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) head, the revenue collection in January 2021 notched up Rs 4,290 crore compared to Rs 4,166 crore last year. Similarly, the Value Added Tax (VAT) mop up in January 2021 stood at Rs 2,235 crore against Rs 1,788 crore last year.

Meanwhile, the revenue collection by the excise department increased by Rs 1,778 crore with the January 2020 and January 2021 kitty at Rs 1,694 crore and Rs 3,472 crore respectively.

The stamp and registration mop up logged an increase of Rs 346 crore with the corresponding figures in January 2020 and January 2021 hitting Rs 1,400 crore and Rs 1,747 crore respectively.

According to UP finance minister Suresh Khanna, the revenue collection in geology and mining department saw an increase of Rs 118 crore with the kitty increasing from Rs 235 crore in January 2020 to Rs 353 crore in January 2021.

Amid farm stir, UP paddy purchase hits 6.4 million tonnes mark

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 4, 2021

Amid farm stir, the paddy procurement in Uttar Pradesh has upended the current kharif marketing season’s target of 5.5 million tonnes (MT) by more than 16 per cent, notching up institutional purchase of 6.4 MT so far.

About 1.2 million state farmers have been directly paid Rs 10,500 crore against the minimum support price (MSP) procurement of paddy at 4,453 procurement centres operated by state government agencies and Food Corporation of India (FCI).

According to the state government, last year the procurement figure had stood at about 5.3 MT, as such the current season’s purchase during the corresponding period increased by 1.1 MT or 20 per cent with almost four weeks to go before the procurement season winds up officially on February 28.

UP is among the top paddy producers in India and the monitoring of the procurement process is being done at the highest level, especially in the backdrop of the ongoing stir over new central farm laws.

For the current season, the MSP of A-grade and common variety of paddy was fixed at Rs 1,888 per quintal and Rs 1,868 per quintal respectively.

In the 2020-21 kharif season, UP paddy output is estimated at 26.4 MT, while the state is expecting rice production of 17.7 MT. Last season, the paddy production in UP had stood at 24.4 MT, while the state had procured 5.657 MT of paddy from farmers.

UP to sign MoUs of Rs 4,500 crore at Aero India 2021

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 3, 2021

The Yogi Adityanath government will sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) of Rs 4,500 crore with different companies at the aerospace and defence exhibition ‘Aero India 2021’ which started in Bengaluru today.

State nodal agency Uttar Pradesh Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) has set up a pavilion at the three-day Aero India 2021 to showcase UP Defence Corridor and its purported benefits to domestic and foreign investors.

UP Defence Corridor is being set up at six places in the state viz. Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Kanpur, Aligarh, Agra and Lucknow districts. About 16 MoUs are expected to be signed on February 5 with total investment profile of more than Rs 4,500 crore.

Aero India 2021 will revolve around the themes of ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Make in India’. More than 600 exhibitors, including 523 Indian and 78 foreign, and 14 countries have confirmed participation in the mega event, which will exhibit their defence manufacturing capabilities, latest technologies, solutions, products and services.

The participants will also include India’s premier Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) exhibiting its latest defence systems and technologies for commercial production.

Amazon-backed More Retail planning grocery stores in UP

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 2, 2021

Amazon-backed food and grocery retailer More Retail is planning to launch supermarkets in different districts of Uttar Pradesh.

The company is looking to enrich the agricultural produce supply and value chain with the proposed foray in the state, which is among the largest producers of agricultural and horticultural crops in India.

Interestingly, this comes in the backdrop of the protests by farmers against the new farm laws, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states have dubbed as pro-farmer and one which will provide an alternative to the farmers to sell farm produce.

Recently, More Retail director Paurush Roy has called upon UP agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi, soliciting the state support to open supermarkets.

More Retail is owned by private equity firm Samara Capital and US ecommerce giant Amazon. The two firms had bought the retail chain from Aditya Birla Group in late 2018. Currently, More Retail operates more than 600 stores across various Indian states.

Meanwhile, Shahi has directed officials to provide district-wise details of major crops grown in the state. The government will also help the company collaborate with the state farmer producer organisations (FPO) for seamless marketing of farm produce.

UP additional chief secretary (agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi assured More Retail to provide applicable incentives under the state mandi (agro markets) provisions, including making use of the available infrastructure at the state notified mandis.

“The government will provide all possible support to facilitate the sale of agricultural produce at remunerative prices at the doorsteps of the farmers,” he added.