Lucknow
Showering praise on Yogi Adityanath for his handling of COVID-19 pandemic, PM Modi on Friday said the vast preparations made by the Uttar Pradesh CM saved at least 85,000 lives, something that was unthinkable before 2017. Modi, who launched the ‘Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rozgar Abhiyan’ seeking to promote local entrepreneurship with industrial associations to provide employment, said Adityanath managed to turn the epidemic into an opportunity which the govs prior to 2017 would have avoided.
The PM referred to the pre-2017 period when the state was mostly ruled by non-BJP governments, saying, “Whichever government or system was in place, the circumstances were such that they would have avoided the challenge but the Adityanath government took it seriously and worked on a war footing.”
He referred to a stampede in Allahabad during the Kumbh Mela, when a former PM was in power who was also an MP from the city, saying the PM made all efforts to brush the “deaths of hundreds of thousands” pilgrims under the carpet.
Modi said UP’s population of 24 crore is same as that of four European countries put together but, in UP the death toll is 600 due to coronavirus and lauded the efforts of Adityanath in tackling the pandemic.
“UP’s achievement is massive... The population of 24 crore is bigger than that of many countries. The population of England, France, Italy and Spain put together comes to 24 crore but they saw 1.30 lakh deaths due to coronavirus,” he said.
