UP attracted investment worth Rs 4 lakh crore, communal riots checked: Yogi Adityanath

Celebrating the 75th Independence Day on Sunday, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath said the state attracted investment worth Rs 4 lakh crore while no communal riot took place under his tenure.

"The state, which was the sixth biggest economy in the country, has become the second biggest. Once associated with anarchy and known as a state of riots, UP today has become a role model in terms of law and order," he said after unfurling the Tricolour outside the UP Vidhan Bhavan.

"A new era of investment has started in the state and in the past four years, there has been an investment of Rs 4 lakh crore," he said, adding that UP has come out of the BIMARU state tag.

Adityanath further claimed, "In the 53 months, not a single communal riot took place and there is a feeling of security in every citizen."

The chief minister also spoke of primacy of "rashtra dharm" over all other duties.

"Our duty is our biggest 'rashtra dharm'. Our styles of worshipping may be different but our duty towards our nation is 'rashtra dharm'," he said.

"After prolonged freedom struggle and countless sacrifices, the country got freedom. The price of Independence can be gauged from the numerous memorials built in the memory of martyrs and freedom fighters across the country. They are living proof of this," he said.

He said the first war of independence in 1857 gave the foreigners a taste of India's collective might.

"Rani Laxmibai was leading the fight in Jhansi while it was Ballia's Mangal Pandey, who was leading at some other place, as the collective fight was intensified by revolutionaries in Lucknow. And the result is that in barely 90 years, the foreigners were forced to leave the country," Adityanath said.

He paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and other freedom fighters on this occasion.

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"It was in Lucknow in 1916, where Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak gave the slogan of 'Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it'. This became the mantra for the entire nation. Revolutionary activities continued throughout the country and UP was one of the hubs," he said.

"The 1922 historic incident of Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur in which farmers waged a decisive battle against the foreigners is in its centenary year. Who can forget the Kakori train ction in which revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajendra Lahiri and others had participated," he said.

The UP chief minister also said under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the dreams of new India are being realised.

"Modiji has envisioned a healthy, prosperous and clean new India, and it will not take time to realise it," the CM said.

On Covid, he said the capacity to test four lakh samples has been developed and UP has administered the highest number of vaccines.

Deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Kumar, and UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh were present on this occasion.