UP polls: Will transform Bundelkhand like Kutch, says PM Modi

Hitting campaign trail in water scarce Bundelkhand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday blamed the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress for backwardness of the region and promised to transform it like Kutch in Gujarat.

Mineral-rich Bundelkhand, he said, can change the "fate" of Uttar Pradesh and satellites can help keep a check on illegal mining.

"The SP and the BSP have ignored Bundelkhand over the years and these elections are crucial for Bundelkhand. It has to decide whether it has to get rid of the SP-BSP," Modi said at an election rally in Orai region of Jalaun in Bundelkhand region.

"In five years, we will transform Bundelkhand, which has not seen any development in the last 70 years...mineral-rich Bundelkhand can change the fate of Uttar Pradesh. Illegal mining has to be stopped and the satellite launched by India can be used to check the clandestine activities," Modi said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has promised that if voted to power, an autonomous development board will be set up for the region and its working will be monitored on a weekly basis, he said.

Explaining his vision for the region, Modi cited the example of Kutch district of Gujarat.

"Some believe nothing can be done in Bundelkhand...it can be made No.1 in the state...there is Kutch district in Gujarat ...20 years ago if any government staff was posted there, it was considered 'kala pani' (Andaman's Cellular Jail)," he said.

The prime minister said that population was dwindling there with no farming and water and people were migrating in search of greener pastures.

"But after the earthquake there, we stared working on it and today it is the most developing district in the country. This can be done here too if the intention is right and if one has the resolve," he stressed.

The prime minister also said, "If Bundelkhand has to flourish, it will need two engines to pull it out of the mess -- the BJP government in UP and at the Centre."

On the law and order front, the prime minister charged that police stations were converted into SP and BSP offices during their governments and musclemen grabbed land of the poor and innocent people.

"It is BJP's promise that a campaign will be started if its government comes to power in the state and a special cell will also be set up and all such encroached land will be returned to rightful owners and the grabbers be sent behind bars," he said, adding those involved in illegal mining will also face stern action.

He pulled up the government for the state of primary education in UP and said it does not figure in the list of first 20 states in admissions in primary schools and similarly the state is nowhere among the first 20 states as far as per capita income is concerned. The main reason is corruption and bad governance.

Stressing that the first three phases of polling has made it clear that the BJP is coming to power with full majority, Modi stressed that migration needed to be stopped and youth should get jobs in Bundelkhand.

Recalling that Rajiv Gandhi had inaugurated a glass factory in Chitrakoot, he said even after passage of 30 years the factory or employment is nowhere in sight.

"Will you trust such people," he asked.

Flaying the SP, the BSP and the Congress governments for "failing to even provide water to the region", he said a massive exercise of interlinking Ken-Betwa rivers has been undertaken.

Photograph: BJP/Twitter