YOGI ADITYANATH completed four years of power as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on 19 March and celebrated its achievements put before the masses as report card of challenges turned into opportunities. Amid his preoccupied schedule, he found a little time to reply some of the questions posed to him by Tehelka’s MUDIT MATHUR
YOGI ADITYANATH, CHIEF MINISTER, UTTAR PRADESH
EDITED EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW •
Your government has completed four years, as Chief Minister. What is your biggest achievement?
After we came to power in 2017, we worked constantly and consistently towards the development of our state and its citizens and turned it into an ‘Economic Powerhouse. We had inherited the popular perception of an ailing state (‘Bimaru Pradesh’) about the state where nobody was ready to come in view of the collapsed law and order and development growth rate. Prior to 2017, farmers were in a miserable condition. The first thing we did after coming to power was waiving off farm debts worth 36,000 crore. Our government has constantly reinforced its commitment to prioritize farmers’ welfare and the growth of the agriculture sector by ensuring pro-farmer measures, including procurement of their crops. In the previous government, farmers suffered immensely.
What were the areas of farmers’ concerns?
Our priority was to make things right for the farmers. We developed a system to resolve the problems related to payments of cane dues that kept pending since 2010-11. Over 47 lakh sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh have been paid a record cane price payment of more than 1,27,000 crore between 2017-2020. This cane price payment is also 31,785 crore more than the cane price payment of 95,215 crore paid during the five-year tenure of the previous government in 2012-2017.
BJP contested 2017 assembly polls on a slogan ‘Na Goonda Raj Na Bhrashtachar’. Have you been able to keep the promise?
Our government came heavily on crimes and criminals to the extent either they left the state or killed in encounters. They are as scared as they started feeling unsafe in UP jails. Safety of women has been our top priority ever since I have assumed office in 2017. We took appropriate steps to protect women from all kinds of crimes and ensured strict punishment to perpetrators so that potential criminals take a cue and mend their ways. Our approach and actions ensured that Uttar Pradesh led the way in controlling rape and other heinous crimes against women. The accused booked under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act got harsh punishment. Speedy trials resulted in better conviction as eight accused sentenced to the death penalty and 193 accused imprisoned for life sentence while different punishment was given to 721 other accused.
