POLITICAL LARGESSE

From hospitals to roads, zoo: UP budget showers goodies on Yogi's constituency

UP Budget Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath listens to the presentation of the state budget | PTI

In the second budget presented by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, Gorakhpur, the constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, appears to have received generous treatment.

Adityanath wants to spruce up Gorakhpur, so the government has opened the doors of its treasury for the city.

Medical and infrastructure facilities, the zoo and other parts of the city will be spruced up soon, and in the new budget, there seems to be no dearth of money for these things. The priority is to improve medical facilities in the district.

The BRD Medical College, like three other medical colleges in the state, will get a super-speciality department under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Sureksha Yojana. Furthermore, the government has earmarked Rs 14 crore for opening a burns unit at the Gorakhpur Medical College.

Last year, Gorakhpur Medical College had been in the news because of the deaths of children there due to inadequate supply of oxygen.

There will be a Gorakhpur Link Expressway coming up soon. This 110km-long expressway will link Gorakhpur with the 350km-long Poorvanchal Expressway—the Poorvanchal Expressway will connect the state capital Lucknow with the eastern UP district of Gazipur.

For building the Gorakhpur Link Expressway, the Adityanath government will spend Rs 550 crore. This expressway will start from Gorakhpur and will join the Poorvanchal Expressway near Azamgarh.

To hold public functions, the government is planning to construct a modern auditorium in Gorakhpur city at an estimated expenditure of Rs 30 crore.

To spruce up the Gorakhpur zoo, which has been a tourist attraction, the government has allocated Rs 24 crore in the present budget. The zoo was a project of former chief minister Mayawati, but after the SP government came to power, it had neglected the zoo. Last year also, the Adityanath government had allocated Rs 21 crore for this project.

The special treatment for Gorakhpur city in the budget has evoked mixed reactions. “The Link Expressway to connect the city with the other parts of eastern UP is surely a welcome step because it will lead to more development of the city,” Tripti Lal, a local resident, said.

“The government should enhance allocation for medical facilities; the city needs it badly, thousands of Japanese encephalitis patients come here for treatment; moreover, floods are a major menace for the adjoining areas, for which the government has not kept sufficient funds,” said Faizullah Khan, another local resident.