Opposition parties promoted 'one district one mafia' policy in UP CM Adityanath

     Gorakhpur (UP), Jul 9 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday accused the opposition parties of corruption and promoting a policy of "one district, one mafia" during their tenure in contrast to his government's focus on development and zero-tolerance against crime.
     Addressing an event here, the chief minister questioned the critics of his government's tree plantation drive.
     "I want to ask those who question the tree plantation program. When they had the opportunity, they could do nothing. They made schemes a center of corruption, a center of loot," said Adityanath.
     "Today our government is giving one district, one product, one district, one crop and these people, whether it was the Samajwadi Party, Congress or Bahujan Samaj Party, their governments gave one district, one mafia," he added.
     Alleging that these parties "worked to spread poison in society in the name of nepotism", the chief minister claimed, "These mafias indulged in illegal felling of forests, illegal mining, grabbed lands, wreaked havoc with anarchy and oppressed the poor."
     "Now the result of a zero-tolerance policy against mafia tendencies is being seen across the country. It is a result of that there is no identity crisis for the youth of the state," he asserted.
     Adityanath also specifically targeted the previous Samajwadi Party government over the Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre (JPNIC) in Lucknow.
     "There is a JPNIC in Lucknow. JP was known for Gandhian ideology, for value-based politics in the country. He advocated for establishing values and ideals in politics, and fought against the model of nepotism. The Samajwadi Party worked to defame such a leader," he said.
     The chief minister highlighted alleged financial irregularities related to the project.
     "Remember the JPNIC Center built in Lucknow, its cost was only Rs 200 crore and by March 2017, Rs 860 crore had been spent and it is still not complete," he said.
     Launching a scathing attack on former chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Adityanath said, "A CBI inquiry is ongoing and that is why babua (child) is furious that their loot, their corruption, is being exposed."
     The chief minister said this while addressing a public meeting on the banks of Chilua Tal before planting saplings there as part of Plantation Mega Drive 2025.
     Adityanath said the plantation drive is not merely an act of planting trees, but a campaign to preserve the present and secure the future, according to a press statement.
     Elaborating on this point, he noted the world is grappling with the severe crisis of climate change, which has led to numerous emerging challenges.
     Referring to a recent incident in Texas, US, the chief minister mentioned the sudden floods that left hundreds of children missing, underlining the scale of climate-related disasters.
     Adityanath said that issues like excessive rainfall, drought, lightning strikes and extreme heat are becoming increasingly severe.
     The seasons that once brought heavy monsoons are now marked by scorching heat. This changing weather pattern is adversely affecting agriculture and the root cause lies in unplanned human activity, the consequences of which are now being faced by all of humanity, he added.
     The chief minister said that forest cover has significantly increased in both the state and the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guidance
     Adityanath pointed out that before 2017, only 26 crore saplings had been planted over five years in the state and even those were not traceable.
     In contrast, over the last eight years, 204 crore saplings have been planted in Uttar Pradesh. As per surveys conducted by the national and international organisations, 75 per cent of these saplings have survived, he added.
     The chief minister further said Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a leading state in afforestation efforts and as a result, plantation has been carried out on five lakh acres of land in the state since 2017.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)