The UP government is committed to making every youth of the state 'smart' by giving them free smartphones and tablets to realise the ‘Digital India’ dream, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Thursday.
The chief minister said this during a function to distribute free smartphones and tablets to 886 students of Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University on Thursday. CM Yogi also laid the foundation stone of the new engineering and technology department at the university.
"We will have to walk as per the times and equip ourselves to face future challenges. Education was one of the worst-hit sectors during the Covid pandemic when physical classes, examinations and laboratory practicals were suspended,” the chief minister said.
“This is when we decided to equip one crore students with smartphones and tablets so that they can access their classes and prepare for exams using them," he said.
CM Adityanath said a person cannot be gauged just by his or her appearance. Citing the example of famous poet Surdas, he said who can imagine after reading the Surdas' work that he was visually challenged. This was the first time that Adityanath personally attended a smartphones and tablets distribution event after taking oath as the chief minister for the second term.
He kickstarted the tablet distribution last year with a mega event in Lucknow on December 25. Hitting out at the previous government, Adityanath said that five years ago, riots and rowdiness used to be common things in Uttar Pradesh the state for which there is no place today in the state.
Talking about the state's economic progress, the chief minister said it has become the second-largest economy among states and it is moving ahead towards development.
Terming the Uttar Pradesh’s manpower as its biggest asset, he added, “I consider the 25-crore population of the state as an asset. People asked me during COVID-19 how would we manage one crore migrant workers returning back to the state.”
“But I always said we have a strength of 25 crore people and we can easily accommodate one crore more. They too are residents of this state only," the chief minister added. He said the state did skill-mapping of migrant workers and tried to provide them employment here.
"The industrial activities in states which abandoned migrant workers were affected and came to a standstill. But in UP, we have no shortage of skilled manpower," Adityanath said.
Emphasising that everyone has got some skill, he said the state government will provide better institutes to develop them. The chief minister also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for coining the term 'divyang' for differently abled individuals in place of 'viklang'.
The chief minister said in 2007, the pension given to differently abled people in 2017 was Rs 300, which was increased by his government to Rs 500 and has now been made Rs 1,000 since December last year.
“Likewise, we have also taken several steps for the welfare of differently abled. Earlier the annual budget for differently abled use was Rs 670 crore. We have increased it to over Rs 1,150 crore,” he said.
"Earlier only 8.75 lakh differently abled people were given pension in the state. Today, 11.26 lakh such people get it. The government earlier used to provide compensation of Rs 8,000 for artificial organs or limbs. It has now increased to Rs 10,000," the chief minister said.
In the last five years, the government has distributed artificial limbs to 2.56 lakh differently abled people and provided them with the facility of free travel in government buses, Adityanath said.
"Earlier state-level awards to differently abled were given in three categories but we have increased them to 12 categories and 30 sub categories,” the chief minister said.
“We have also raised the reward money from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000. The state also provides financial support for surgeries of differently abled people and because of our efforts, the state has received the first place in the country in rehabilitation of differently abled people,” the chief minister said.
“The state government is dedicated to ease the life of differently abled people," he added.
Talking about the delay in tablet distribution, Adityanath attributed it to lag in manufacturing due to Covid lockdown in China and Russia-Ukraine war.
Because of these factors, there is a dearth of requisite semiconductor chips used for manufacturing these devices, he said but sought to assure students that all of them would get these devices eventually.
(with inputs from PTI)
