Yogi: Expect a major scheme on UP Diwas
LUCKNOW: CM Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said his government will announce a major welfare scheme for state residents during the first UP Diwas celebrations on January 24.
He said, “It will be disclosed to the public only during the inauguration of UP Diwas.” The CM was addressing the function organised at Lok Bhawan here to mark the 101 years of popular slogan, ‘Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it’ given by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Tilak had coined the slogan in 1916 at the Congress Convention held in Lucknow. The UP Diwas will be celebrated on January 24 as it was on this day in 1950 that the United Provinces was rechristened as Uttar Pradesh.
The chief minister will inaugurate the event at Awadh Shilp Gram along with Lucknow Mahotsav, which could not be held in November. The CM took potshot on previous governments for not celebrating UP Diwas even though most states celebrate the days they was carved out. “Even Maharashtra celebrates UP Diwas,” said Yogi. He also felicitated freedom fighters and their kin at the Tilak slogan celebrations. “Our government is coming up with residential scheme for freedom fighters and there is also a plan to renovate the memorials built in the honour of freedom fighters,” he said. The UP government and Maharashtra government signed an MoU in which both parties had agreed to collaborate in the field of cultural and educational exchange programme. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said UP and Maharashtra shared a strong bonding. He claimed that he had regularly attended UP Diwas in Maharashtra and was glad to know that UP will now celebrate its Diwas. Mayor of Pune, Mukta Tilak, who also happens to be Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s kin, reminded people about Tilak’s popularity.
The CM released a book, which is a collection of rare pictures of Tilak and an English translation of modern time interpretation of Tilak’s ‘Gita Rahasya’.
Governor Ram Naik said he had first proposed to former CM Akhilesh Yadav to celebrate the centenary of Tilak’s slogan but he didn’t act on it. “When Yogi regime came to power, I penned a letter and he agreed,” he said.