‘Prior govts pushed UP into poverty’

PM Narendra Modi with UP Chief Minister Yogi  Adityanath at the Purvanchal Expressway  inauguration, in Sultanpur, Tuesday

Sultanpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on  Tuesday accused the previous UP governments of  letting poverty and the  mafia take over the state’s  eastern part, saying the  BJP is now writing a new  chapter of development  there. Modi spoke here  after the launch of the  341-km Purvanchal Expressway, where he himself landed in a military  transport aircraft on a  3.2-km stretch developed  as an emergency air strip  for the Indian Air Force. Development was limited  to places where the previous CMs had their homes  or families, Modi said  while not naming the SP,  the BSP or the Congress  which the ruling BJP faces in the assembly polls  just months away.

The inauguration of  the Rs 22,500-crore sixlane road between Lucknow and Ghazipur followed a slugfest between  the BJP and Akhilesh  Yadav’s SP. -(PTI)