Launching his campaigning for the upcoming state urban bodies polls and appealing people to elect BJP candidates, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Wednesday, said that a triple-engine government will increase the pace of development three times at municipalities, municipal councils and municipal corporations.

Addressing a gathering at the Prabuddha Jan Sammelan in Shahjahanpur after inaugurating and laying foundation stone for 87 developmental projects worth Rs 308.18 crore, Yogi said, “I must congratulate you for electing all your representatives of the BJP, which gave you the bonus of a Rajya Sabha MP and three MLCs from the party to work for the development of the district. Now, it’s time to elect BJP candidates on municipal seats to accelerate the pace of development across municipal councils and municipalities.”

Emphasising that the political leadership of Shahjahanpur has played big role in the development of the city in the recent past, Yogi added that it was the BJP government that promoted Shajahanpur from a municipality to a municipal corporation, providing it many benefits, which was denied to it by the previous governments that treated development as a formality rather than a mission.

“Today, if 20,170 houses have been built for the poor in Shahjahanpur alone, it is because we promoted the city to a municipal corporation,” he remarked, adding that much work in terms of road infrastructure, traffic safety and cleanliness has been done in the district through introduction of Integrated Traffic Management System and Integrated Control Command Centre for handling traffic, garbage disposal as well as management of diseases and natural disasters.

“There was a time when UP’s cities ranked among the dirty cities of the country with Gonda known as the dirtiest. However, today all the 17 municipal corporations have respectable rankings in terms of cleanliness”, Yogi said.

“Smart city and safe city missions are interrelated and, therefore, CCTV cameras are also being installed to keep a vigil on anti-social elements and take them to task before they manage to flee for the safety of women, traders and others,” he added.

The CM further said not only cities, the government has also launched programmes to make the youth smarter, and it is paying off as well.

CM Yogi added, “PM Modi’s mantra Sabka Saath, Sabka vikas is working well for all, especially the needy and the deprived. No one before PM Modi thought of welfare of the street vendors. For the first time, they are getting interest free loans to expand their businesses. In Shahjahanpur alone, 14,000 street vendors have received loans.”

Yogi claimed that his Government has introduced 25 investor-friendly policies that ease about 340 procedures related to provision of NOCs to investors, adding that once an entrepreneur is registered all the procedures are expedited and the investor also gets entitled for incentives announced by the government.

The CM informed that the Global Investors Summit is going to be held in Lucknow from February 10 to 12 to invite investors from different countries to invest in the state and to make UP the number one economy in the country.

Meanwhile, the CM also presented cheques, keys and certificates to the beneficiaries of various schemes on the occasion.