Prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday fulfilled his poll promises in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh. Laying the foundation stone of AIIMS and a fertiliser plant in Gorakhpur he said this would aid development in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing a large gathering after the foundation laying ceremony, Modi started by addressing the crowd in Bhojpuri garnering loud applause from the people.
The ₹1,011 crore AIIMS project is aimed at bringing better healthcare to the people and aggregating a pool of doctors in the city. The region which is the nerve centre of politically charged Uttar Pradesh has been plagued by the deadly Japanese Encephalitis disease for years. More than 50,000 children are estimated to have died in the region in last four decades.
The hospital will have a capacity of 750 beds, including Emergency/Trauma beds, AYUSH beds, private beds and ICU Speciality & Super Speciality beds. The hospital is expected to benefit the entire Purvanchal — Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Basti and Devi Patan divisions comprising 14 districts in Uttar Pradesh — and five districts of western Bihar (West-Champaran, East-Champaran, Saran, Siwan, and Gopalganj).
He also revived a fertilizer plant that was closed for more than a decade and this would result in the employment of more than 400 people. “It is natural to have a discussion on price rise in India but if prices are down there is hardly a murmur. Have you heard in the last so many years if the cost of fertilizers has decreased? This is the first government to have done so,” he claimed.
The state which is the second most important political constituency after Varnasi in the eastern Uttar Pradesh saw PM Modi paying his homage to the temple of Gorakhnath and to Mahant Avaidnath. This move is being seen as an attempt to garner upper cast votes in UP ahead of the assembly polls in 2017.
