Ahmedabad

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to chair his state’s session during the 13th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) to address more than 150 Non-Residential Indians (NRIs) in Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar on January 9, officials said here today.

“Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will preside over the state of Uttar Pradesh’s specific session at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on January 9, where NRIs will be informed about the state’s schemes for them,” UP government’s NRI Department advisor Madhukar Jetley told reporters here.

Jetley said that UP was “always growing” but the state machinery never advertised it like the Gujarat government.

He alleged that the Gujarat authorities had removed posters of UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in the city.

“The Gujarat government is scared of our initiatives.

We had put up posters here, after completing all legal process. If the Chinese President is welcomed in Gujarat, why is the UP Chief Minister not welcomed,” Jetley said, adding that it should be investigated and the guilty should be punished.

When asked about Uttar Pradesh’s infrastructure, Jetley said work would begin on five mega metro projects in cities like Kanpur, Meerut, Allahabad, Lucknow and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi as well.

Quoting a World Bank report, Jetley said that UP has been included among India’s top five manufacturing states and for contributing 8.3 per cent of India’s manufacturing output in 2012-13.

The state has availability of basic raw material for handicraft manufacturing like wood and metal including silver, cooper, brass and tin, along with paper, stone, cotton, silk and leather. Around 1.76 lakh industrial units were set up during the the 11th five year plan period at a total investment of USD 9.07 billion, he said.

According to Jetley, UP would soon become the first state in the country to get a 4G network.

As per an official release, the UP government plans to celebrate its first ever ‘Uttar Pradesh NRI Divas’ in Agra from February 28 to March 1.

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