Ahead of polls, Yogi kickstarts campaign to distribute tablets, smartphones to 1 Cr UP students

Lucknow, Dec 25: On the occasion of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday began the campaign to distribute free tablets and smartphones to one crore students of the state.

After Narendra Modi's NDA government came to power in 2014, December 25 has been celebrated as 'Good Governance Day' in memory of Vajpayee, who served as the country's PM thrice, including a full term in 1999-2004.

The UP government distributed tablets and smartphones to 60,000 students at the Ekana Stadium.
Five students -- Akanksha Mishra, a final year student of BSc Nursing, Sagar Upamanyu, a visually-challenged student of MA (Political Science), Mehul Gupta, a BTech student, Prabal Awasthi preparing for competitive examinations and Zeba Kausar, a final year student of BA - were invited on stage to speak where they expressed gratitude to the CM for providing resources to the needy students.

Addressing the gathering, Adityanath said, "Thinking should never be small. If thinking is big it will give a new dimension to your personality. Youths should never allow hopelessness to enter their lives, if they work with this passion, they will be able to do anything,"

The CM named Chhatrapati Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi as people who sent a strong message to the world while they were still young. Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan was also present on the occasion. Without taking names, Yogi accused the Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav of misleading people during the pandemic and encouraging nepotism under his rule.

"Those who wake up at 12 o'clock are not youths, those who opposed the vaccine during corona pandemic and misled people are not youths, they are all tired and retired, don't trust them," he said. "Before 2017 there was nepotism in appointments, if a job was announced, people of one family, of one lineage, uncle, nephew, maternal uncle all used to go out for extortion," he added.

According to the UP CM, the state government has created 4.5 lakh jobs in Uttar Pradesh in the five years and cracked down on 'mafia' to the shock of their "patrons". He also made the students raise the slogan "Soch Imandar, Kaam Dumdaar" said. Paying his tributes to Vajpayee and founder of Banaras Hindu University Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, who share birthday, Yogi said students of UP have attained a new identity in the country and the world.

The CM honoured weightlifter Mira Bai Chanu, who won a silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with a reward of Rs 1.5 crore and her coach Vijay Kumar Sharma with Rs 10 lakh. PTI