DEORIA (UP): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said the state has overcome its earlier image as a “Bimaru” state and now enjoys a “respectable image” due to improvements in healthcare, connectivity, education and law and order.
Addressing a programme in Deoria, where he inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for 80 development projects worth Rs 305 crore, Adityanath said encephalitis had reflected the “sick mindset” of previous Samajwadi Party and Congress governments.
He alleged that more than 50,000 people had lost their lives to the disease over four decades and claimed that successive governments had remained indifferent to the plight of the poor.
“Encephalitis was not merely a disease; it was a sick mindset. It was the sick mentality of the Samajwadi Party and Congress governments of that time,” Adityanath said.
The chief minister also claimed that a parallel “mafia rule” had once operated across Uttar Pradesh, but asserted that his government had crushed the mafia and strengthened law and order.
“For those who threaten the safety of daughters and traders, there are only two places: either jail or hell; there is no third option,” he said.
Adityanath said the state’s development approach had shifted from “one district, one mafia” to “one district, one medical college”, pointing to the establishment of medical colleges in Deoria and neighbouring Kushinagar.
He also said encephalitis had been eradicated through improvements in healthcare infrastructure and initiatives.
Highlighting development in Deoria, the chief minister said the district now has a medical college named after Maharishi Deoraha Baba. He said connectivity was being improved through the construction of bypasses and flyovers, while roads were being upgraded from single-lane to double-lane, double-lane to four-lane and four-lane to six-lane roads.
He further said composite schools were being constructed and Kasturba Gandhi schools upgraded as part of efforts to improve education infrastructure.
The chief minister said Abhyudaya coaching facilities were being provided to help young people prepare for competitive examinations, while basic education schools were being transformed under the government’s ‘Operation Kayakalp’ programme.
These initiatives, he said, were aimed at strengthening healthcare, education and infrastructure while creating better opportunities for the state’s youth.