UP a role model, got investment plans worth Rs 53,000 cr since lockdown — minister S.N. Singh

Sidharth Nath Singh tells ThePrint Yogi govt has provided 4 lakh public sector jobs in 3.5 years, says UP is becoming a role model for other states.

File image of UP CM Yogi Adityanath (left) and MSME & investments minister Sidharth Nath Singh (right) | Photo: ANI

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister and government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh has said that since the announcement of the Covid-induced lockdown last March, the state has received investment proposals worth Rs 53,000 crore.

BJP leader Singh told ThePrint in an interview that several foreign companies have also shown keen interest in investing in UP, and some have already initiated their projects.

Singh, who heads the MSME, investment & export, textile, and khadi & gram udyog departments, also said the Yogi Adityanath-led state government has already provided more than four lakh public sector jobs in the past three and a half years, and more than 50 lakh people have been provided direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Companies are ditching China to set up shop in UP 

Singh, the grandson of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, provided some details about the foreign firms that have invested in his state, and said they were also planning bigger investments in UP.

Samsung, he said, has set up a project worth Rs 5,000 crore in Noida to manufacture mobile phone display screens — moving its project from China, “because it now sees a new hope in UP”.

PepsiCo has invested a sum of Rs 8,000 crore to start a plant in Mathura to manufacture potato chips.

A German shoe manufacturer, Von Wellx, is also starting its project in Agra, having terminated its venture in China.

Several Indian companies, including the Hiranandani Group, announced their plans to invest in UP during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sidharth Nath Singh said, in many ways, UP has now become the most favourable destination for investors.

“Last month, I had said that investment projects worth Rs 47,000 crore have come to UP during the coronavirus period, but now this amount has swelled to Rs 53,000 crore,” he said.

This figure, he clarified, is different to the pledges received during the state’s investor summits over the two years preceding the pandemic year.

“Work on several projects with investment pledged during the investors’ summits has already been started. The government has already disclosed information about it,” he said.

‘More than 4 lakh government jobs’

According to the minister, the opposition parties in UP “keep spreading disinformation regarding rising unemployment rates”. But contrary to this “propaganda”, the truth is that till now the Yogi government has provided nearly four lakh governments jobs.

“Various appointments have been made in all departments including, police, education etc. Figures about all this are available with the government. Simultaneously, more than 50 lakh people were connected with direct or indirect employment through schemes like ODOP (One District One Product), Vishwakarma Shram Samman Yojana etc. The government is continuously providing employment opportunities under all these schemes,” he said.

Speaking about the ambit of one of his own departments, MSMEs, Sidharth Nath Singh said: “The loans provided to small-scale industries in every district under ODOP initiative have also created employment opportunities for so many people. Data regarding this will also be soon made available by our department so that all the confusion which is being spread in the name of rising unemployment is cleared.”

The MSME department, he said, has played an important role in boosting UP’s economy during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Both the prime minister as well as the UP chief minister have a positive approach towards promoting small-scale industries, the atmosphere prevailing in UP’s MSME sector has already been transformed. Thus, the image of UP as an investment option has also been transformed. Now, UP is on course to become a major manufacturing hub,” Singh said.

“The central government is also adopting ODOP. There’s also an initiative called the Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana (CM self-employment scheme). In the MSME sector, loans worth Rs 36,000 crore have been disbursed to seven lakh units, new and old. UP’s economy is coming on track,” he added.

He announced that on 24 January, an exhibition called ‘Hunar Haat’ is going to be organised by his department in Lucknow, in which the crafts of small industries run by artisans will be showcased. The local products of every district that are being promoted under the ODOP programme will be seen in this exhibition. We are focusing more on how to improve the rural economy,” Singh said.

‘Everybody will ultimately follow UP model’

At a time when farmers from many states have been protesting against three new laws on agriculture on the outskirts of capital New Delhi since late November, Singh denied there was any growing resentment among UP’s farmers against the government.

He said, in fact, the Yogi government is soon going to start Mission Kisan Kalyan, under which 100 progressive farmers from every district will be selected to be honoured as ‘role models.

“This government always thinks about the interests of farmers,” he insisted.

Replying to questions being raised about the law promulgated by the state government against so-called ‘love jihad’, he said the police is only doing its job and investigations are on.

“The police will work according to law of the land. If any complaint is registered against someone, then it is duty-bound to investigate it. Opposition parties often try to malign the image of the government, but the public teaches them a lesson. They will deliver a similar lesson in 2022 as well,” Singh said, referring to next year’s UP assembly elections.

Some BJP-ruled states have followed UP’s lead in issuing ordinances on other issues, including ‘love jihad’ and banning cow slaughter, and Singh said ministers from those governments had visited UP to understand the finer details.

“A hundred years ago, it used to be said that the country follows later what Bengal thinks today, but now it will be changed to ‘what UP thinks today’. Other states are now following the ordinance brought in by us,” he said.

“UP is now becoming a role model for other states; even states from southern and western India are eager to know about the investment that is taking place in UP, and our new laws. All this is the direct outcome of the rapidly transforming image of UP,” the minister added.