No red tape only red carpet

Lucknow: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that investors in Uttar Pradesh will be welcomed with a “red carpet instead of facing red tape” in Uttar Pradesh as top industry leaders pledged investments of over Rs 88,000 crore in the state.

Modi said he was sure the Yogi Adityanath government will ensure that all the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) involving an estimated investment of Rs 4.28 lakh crore signed ahead of the summit will be implemented soon.

“The CM has promised to follow and monitor the implementation of the MoUs himself. More jobs will be created for the people now. 

I am sure the UP Investors’ Summit will open new doors for investment in UP,” said Modi.Modi used the occasion to tell investors about the changing environment in the state. “Whenever any change takes place, it becomes visible. A large assembly of investors in the state shows that UP has changed. 

I congratulate chief minister Yogi Adityanath, his team of ministers, the bureaucracy, the police and the people of the state on bringing about the change so early… The industry will now get a red-carpet welcome, instead of facing red tape, in Uttar Pradesh,” the PM said.

“I’ve said earlier too, progress comes through potential, policy, planning and performance and now Yogi ji’s government is ready to deliver super-hit performance,” he said. The Prime Minister’s comment came as the chief minister spoke about his government’s initiatives to transform Uttar Pradesh from a ‘BIMARU’ state to a developed one and said that 1,045 MoUs were already signed ahead of the summit.

Modi said two days ago he attended a similar summit in Maharashtra that had set a target to become a trillion-dollar economy. “Can Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh compete with each other to become the trillion-dollar economy? Will UP government compete with other states? The more the competition, more will be the investment. This will result in the creation of more jobs and strengthen the concept of cooperative federalism,” he said. 

The Prime Minister said the Adityanath government had pushed the state from negativity towards positivity and rekindled hope among the people. “A foundation has been laid to build a new Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

Modi also announced that out of the two defence industrial corridors proposed in the Union Budget, one will be set up in Uttar Pradesh, covering parts of the backward Bundelkhand region. “Keeping in view development (requirements) of the Bundelkhand region, the defence corridor will be extended to Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi and Chitrakoot,” Modi said after inaugurating the UP Investors’ Summit-2018 at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow. 

“We expect an investment of Rs 20,000 crore in the defence corridor. This will create 2.5 lakh more jobs,” he added. The first of the two, announced by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech, is being built between Chennai and Bengaluru - connecting Kattupalli port, Chennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Hosur.

The PM launched Nivesh Mitra, an entrepreneur-friendly application to enhance ease of doing business in UP. The digital portal has salient features such as one payment gateway that will quicken digital clearances.