UP alert over Covid variant ‘Omicron’

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Nov 29, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government has sounded alert over new Covid-19 mutant ‘Omicron’ detected in several countries including South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana.

All inbound travellers from these countries will be subjected to strict screening and genome sequencing to mitigate spread of infection. The airports have come under higher vigilance and scrutiny.

In his advisory, UP additional chief secretary, medical and health, Amit Mohan Prasad has instructed all the chief medical officers (CMO) to screen travellers arriving from, or transiting through, these countries.

Their samples will be collected for genome sequencing, and the district surveillance officers will follow-up with their contacts as well. Genome sequencing is a tool to check if a certain variant of Covid is present in the population.

Meanwhile, strict vigil will be kept on foreigners coming to Agra, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Lucknow and Kanpur.

Besides, the state health department has asked premier medical institutes, including Lucknow based SGPGI and King George’s Medical University (KGMU), where patients come from abroad for treatment, to compulsorily screen all patients.

Modi dedicates Rs 23,000 crore Purvanchal Expressway

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Nov 16, 2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday dedicated to public the 341 km Purvanchal Expressway that cuts across nine districts in Eastern Uttar Pradesh.

It entailed an investment of about Rs 23,000 crore. Modi arrived in Sultanpur district for the inauguration ceremony aboard an Indian Air Force (IAF) Hercules aircraft and landed on the Purvanchal Expressway airstrip. An air show comprising IAF fighter jets viz. Mirage and Sukhoi was also held.

Addressing the gathering, the PM clubbed prosperity and national security, while he flayed the previous governments for doing precious little to enhance the country’s defence capabilities.

He observed Purvanchal Expressway will facilitate the emergency landing of fighter jets. “The air show will scare those elements who have neglected our defence capability needs for decades.”

The expressway spans Lucknow, Barabanki, Amethi, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. It will connect the socioeconomically laggard Eastern UP (Purvanchal) region to the National Capital Region (NCR) via Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Greater Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway.

Modi noted good connectivity was vital for industrial development. “The expressway, which has cost more than Rs 22,000 crore, will spur investment to the tune of several lakh of rupees and create lakhs of job opportunities.”

At present, four expressway projects totalling Rs 80,000 crore have been undertaken by the Yogi Adityanath government. These comprise 341 km Purvanchal Expressway, 296 km Bundelkhand Expressway, 91 km Gorakhpur Link Expressway and 600 km Ganga Expressway.

“We need balanced development for ensuring composite development and to alleviate disparities between different regions. The Purvanchal Expressway will put UP on the path of faster development, enhance its stature and spur all round growth in different sectors,” Modi said.

In his address, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath said the project was completed in record time despite pandemic. “We are giving due importance to improving the infrastructure including roads, expressways, metro trains etc. UP will play a vital role in realising the PM’s vision of propelling India as the world’s leading economy.”

India discussing non-tariff trade barriers with Bangladesh

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Nov 14, 2021

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday said the central government was discussing the issue of non-tariff trade barriers with Bangladesh to promote Indian exports to the neighbouring country.

“Bangladesh allows for a restricted number of Indian goods train as well as road cargo transport to protect its indigenous industry. However, we are discussing these non-tariff barriers with the country,” Goyal said while interacting with Uttar Pradesh based exporters and entrepreneurs in Lucknow.

He underlined the Centre had taken a slew of measures to promote exports and realise the potential of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in job creation and spurring economic activities.

The union minister noted UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath had rightly espoused the concept that export promotion is as much a responsibility of the respective states as the Centre.

“UP is the country’s top landlocked exporting state in India. In fact, the state has the potential to achieve export volumes of Rs 7.5 trillion in the next five years from the current level of Rs 1.5 trillion,” he added.

Referring to UP’s flagship One District, One Product (ODOP) scheme that aims to promote indigenous industries and handicrafts, Goyal said UP was at the forefront of reviving the traditional industries of the state.

“There is a big potential for inward investment in UP given the improvement in the law and order machinery and pro-industry stance taken by the Yogi government,” he said.

Further, Goyal said inclusive policies which cater both to the industry and the deprived sections simultaneously were needed to take the country on the path of speedier socioeconomic growth and job creation.

Yogi flags off Rs 11,000 crore Kanpur Metro trial

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Nov 1, 2021

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday flagged off the trial run of Kanpur Metro, which is expected to cost more than Rs 11,000 crore.

Last year, the European Investment Bank (EIB) had consented to provide a loan of Euro 650 million for the mega project.

Kanpur Metro is now expected to start the commercial operations before December 31, 2021, which means it would be up and running much before the crucial next UP assembly polls in the early months of 2022.

“Kanpur is now a metro city both in terms of population and on account of good passenger transport infra too,” the CM said in his message after the flagging off ceremony. He also travelled in a coach during the inaugural trial run to get the first hand information of the ambitious project.

In the first phase, Kanpur Metro will traverse nine km between IIT Kanpur and Motijheel stations. In all, two corridors of more than 32 km are proposed as part of the larger Kanpur Metro blueprint.

While, the first corridor spans 23.8 km from IIT Kanpur to Naubasta, the second 8.6 km corridor runs from Chandrashekhar Azad Agricultural University to Barra area.

Even during lockdown, the ‘strategic execution’ of the Kanpur Metro project ensured the civil work progressed unhindered on the 9 km priority corridor.

Interestingly, the Kanpur Metro is the first Indian metro where pre-cast double T-girders have been used for constructing the concourse level of metro stations.

Meanwhile, the Yogi government is working on another metro project in Agra. Last year, the Supreme Court (SC) had cleared the Rs 8,380 crore Agra Metro project, thus paving way for the mass rapid transit system (MRTS) in the Taj City.

Yogi government to set up ‘Social Media Monitoring Cell’

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Nov 9, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government will set up a specialised ‘Social Media Monitoring Centre’ as part of its general law and order control machinery.

According to UP additional chief secretary, home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi, the proposed Centre will be established in the state Intelligence department headquarters in Lucknow.

“On the directions of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, a slew of steps have been taken to fortify the law and order machinery and control crime,” he said in a statement here on Monday.

The new Centre will be equipped with advanced ‘news extractor’ and ‘database analytics’ software to monitor the social media outlets for possible breach of norms and culpable delinquency.

The Yogi Adityanath government has also approved the proposal to engage National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) as consultant and executing agency of the proposed Centre. NISG is a not-for-profit company incorporated in 2002 by the Centre and NASSCOM to support the digital and smart governance initiatives undertaken by the government departments and entities.

Moreover, the UP government has simultaneously been upgrading the cyber crime wing of the police to curb the growing incidents of online frauds and digital crimes, especially related to the financial and banking spectrum.

Modi to unveil Rs 23,000 crore Purvanchal Expressway

 

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Nov 8, 2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Rs 23,000 crore Purvanchal Expressway on November 16.

According to sources, Modi will dedicate the mega infra project to public at a ceremony in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

Purvanchal Expressway project also entails an airstrip in Sultanpur for the landing and takeoff of the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter planes during emergency. The inauguration ceremony will be held at the airstrip, which will also witness the PM address a public meeting.

The mega expressway cuts across nine districts viz. Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. It will provide seamless connectivity to the backward Eastern UP (Purvanchal) region to the National Capital Region (NCR) via Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Greater Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway.

The project entailed acquisition of 4,330 hectares of land. Earlier, the project was divided into eight packages and awarded to different bidders for expeditious development.

In fact, the expressway has already been thrown open for public use at different stretches even as some of the civil works continued in others, according to a senior UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), the nodal agency of the project, here.

Currently, four big expressway projects totalling about Rs 80,000 crore are in different stages of development. These include 340 km Purvanchal Expressway, 296 km Bundelkhand Expressway, 91 km Gorakhpur Link Expressway and 628 km Ganga Expressway.

Most of these infra projects have been funded with bank loans, as such the Yogi Adityanath government did not face any budgetary hurdles in their development.

Meanwhile, the Yogi government is also in the process of holding a competitive bidding for Rs 36,000 crore Ganga Expressway project. In September 2021, the Adityanath cabinet had okayed the bidding document of the project envisioned on public private partnership (PPP) model of DBFOT (design, build, finance, operate, transfer).

Yogi government logs Rs 2.75 trillion in Direct Benefit payments

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Nov 7, 2021

Setting a new record, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has logged Rs 2.75 trillion in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) payments under different schemes in the last four and half years.

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) refers to the direct money transfer to the beneficiary’s bank account, and is reckoned as a revolutionary step towards transparent governance. 

On Saturday, the UP government had credited Rs 1,980 crore in the accounts of parents of 18 million students of government and aided schools for purchasing uniform, sweater, bag, shoes and socks.

In the last budget session of the UP assembly, Governor Anandiben Patel, while referring to DBT, had said in the financial year 2020-21, the state had transferred Rs 56,000 crore directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries, thus eliminating the middlemen.

While the DBT helps in curbing corruption, it is proving to be a boon for farmers, labourers, daily wagers, students and pensioners, a UP government spokesperson said here.

The programme has helped the government in mounting an effective response during the Covid-19 lockdown. The funds were sent directly to the accounts of millions of farmers, MNREGA workers, labourers, women, elderly, ‘divyangs’ and pensioners. The no-frills Jan Dhan bank accounts opened on the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the orbit for such transfers.

The DBT was also resorted to for the government’s flagship farm loan waiver scheme totalling Rs 36,000 crore that benefitted 8.6 million small and marginal farmers in UP.

Besides, the DBT pertains to the payment of sugarcane arrears totalling Rs 1.45 trillion apart from PM Kisan Samman Nidhi totalling Rs 27,521 crore to the accounts of more than 25 million farmers. 

India to recoup 157 artifacts stolen during British era

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Nov 4, 2021

Union minister for tourism and culture G Kishan Reddy on Wednesday said the Centre was negotiating with foreign countries for the return of 157 statues and artifacts stolen from India and shipped abroad during the British period.

“The culture department missions in our respective embassies abroad have identified these artifacts, including paintings. The process of securing our stolen heritage and bringing them back is underway,” Reddy told the media here.

These heritage items are currently in different countries, including USA, Singapore, Belgium, the UK, Switzerland etc, he informed.

Since Independence, he said, a total of 55 artifacts, including stolen figurines have been brought back to India. “Of these, 42 heritage pieces have come back since 2014 during the current Narendra Modi regime, which is 75 percent of the total recouped items.”

Reddy said of the 157 artifacts, for which the process of bringing them back to India was underway, about 100 are in the US alone.

“It is due to the unstinted efforts mounted by the Modi government that a large number of our stolen heritage is being identified and brought back,” he noted.

Recently, a Mata Annapurna Devi statue has been brought back to India from Canada. It is believed to have been smuggled away from the reverred Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi nearly 100 years back.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the state government will take out a grand four-day ‘Yatra’ during 12-15 November from Kasganj to Varanasi districts for the ritualistic reinstallation of the statue in the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

“Under the inspiring leadership of PM Modi and his diplomatic outreach, the stature of India has scaled new heights,” Adityanath said while referring to the global popularity of Yoga and Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj.

“Due to the prime minister, our ancient medicine system of Ayurveda received international recognition during the millennia’s biggest pandemic (Covid-19),” the CM underlined.