Coronavirus Part - 48, Intense Year, Magnificent U.P. and Importance of Small Cities

 

             Since there is a brief gap in my posts during last 3 months, I thought about some topics in the mean time which are worth mentioning in this space. One of those is the way the last year has gone by. Every new year, one thinks how the previous year went by and this year I reminisced of the last year full of action. As I said, the covid times has heightened my activity and its severity. One year of my time is equivalent to 10 years of a normal persons time and this is reality and not one bit exaggeration. I am living 10 years of life nudged into one single year.

             You cannot just live like that without introspection on the relevance of such a life. Otherwise you are doing more harm than good. One of the areas which come to the mind immediately is the growth and the pace of growth. India is a country where there is a quantum vacuum for growth. My work and anyone who watches me work fits into this vacuum very well. I already pitched my opinion relevant to this few posts back when I mentioned about inspiration and development. This is exactly the angle through which you need to look at my last year.

             Growth can be quantified but not everything that grows can be quantified. There have been many seeds of growth that have been sown which will give a bountiful in the future. Though it is an indicator, we cannot just rely on the GDP numbers to measure the growth of the country. A case in the point is the story of Uttar Pradesh. The largest populated state, Uttar Pradesh is India in a certain sense. When Uttar Pradesh coughs India catches fever. This has been the political significance of the state which has been left in backwardness since years, decades and centuries.

             If Uttar Pradesh is the epitome of India, Varanasi is the epitome of Uttar Pradesh. When Varanasi grows Uttar Pradesh grows, when Uttar Pradesh grows India grows. This has been the relevance of the city to the state and the state to the country. And what happened in the last seven years in the very city, state is absolute magic. There has been underlying hunger for change and development from the people of the state in the last decade for which last year is the tipping point.

             The land of Gods or the ‘Dev Bhoomi’ has seen an ocean of change in the recent tenure of the Government. Uttar Pradesh is now no longer the backward state it used to be but became and vying to become a front runner among top states. No numbers can gauge this monumental shift in growth and fortunes of the state. If the leader at the centre wants India first, the leader at the state wants UP first. This combination and the like-minded partnership can propel the state into the horizons of faster evolution in no time.

             During the last five years, the economy of the state improved so much to place the state in second position. Uttar Pradesh has set a benchmark of development in every field in the last five years. Lakhs of crores of development projects have been initiated in the state with several of them getting inaugurated after completion in this very period. The double-engine government with tremendous support from centre has left no stone unturned in seizing the moment and milking the cow to the maximum extent possible.

             Just sample this, in the last 2 to 3 months, the PM visited UP nearly 10 times on the backdrop of assembly polls and inaugurated or launched various development projects worth tens of thousands of crores in partnership with the state CM. These include - to name a few - international airport in Kushinagar, nine medical colleges in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Purvanchal Expressway, a mega-highway project to link eastern Uttar Pradesh districts with the central part of the state, AIIMS and a fertiliser plant in Gorakhpur, two-day visit to Varanasi for the Kashi Vishwanath Dham Corridor project among many others.

             This might be the season of polls but still the progressive work being undertaken is mindboggling when compared to the normal times. This is spot-on to the fast-paced track the government is travelling taking cue from many fellow travellers like me. Our motto is development and a fast-paced development is the need of the hour. How well the fortunes of the state have turned around reflecting the deep-rooted desire of its people is a brilliant case study.

             The emergence of temple of Lord Ram in the state will very well tell the story of emerging UP and that of emerging India. I would vouch for this very government in the ongoing state elections and expect them to continue the good work being done in the past few years.

             Like I said, the past one year saw a lot of activity, a part of this involved travelling to a town at very frequent intervals.  This activity sustained me this far which I owe to the town called Gudivada in A.P. and the wonderful people from the place. With that activity, I rounded off my Pongal celebrations in this New Year as well. I am for all the prosperity of the second rung towns and cities in India. India has nearly 350 towns and cities which have over 1 lakh population.

             One lakh is not a small number and the people deserve everything as any other place else where. I had seen instances of leaving the second-rung places to filth and dirt, and projecting only a few places as worthwhile. This has to change drastically and people in the lesser places need to be covered and be a part of the main story. I literally survived because of the people from this small town and don’t want to over-emphasise their importance. Taking up their well-being should be the important task for any government.

             The development should be inside-out and bottom-up which will only tell the real story of India. Just showcasing few metros as India will never reveal the true picture. If you care for the country, care for this part of the nation which is the true India in every sense.

             Moving onto covid-19 scenario in the country, the cases in the country per day have decreased to 16 thousand and on the downward slope of the triangle. The seven day average cases are around 24 thousand. The cases are dropping at a faster rate and considering the low severity of Omicron infection, the threat due to covid-19 is very minimal. The active cases in the country have reduced to 2 lakh.

             As of today, 96% of eligible population is vaccinated with at least one dose and 76% of eligible population is vaccinated with both the doses. 1.75 billion vaccination doses are given till date. 1.8 crore booster doses are given till date and this has to improve in the coming days to cover everyone with proper levels of immunity. In the mean time, it is hoped that the pandemic comes to an end and our lives are restored back to normality.