Aligarh to host Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University, defence industrial corridor

Addressing the event, the prime minister remembered the late Kalyan Singh. He said that Kalyan Singh would have been very happy to see the emerging profile of Aligarh in the defence sector and the establishment of  Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh.

Addressing the event, the prime minister underlined the fact that many great personalities gave their all to the freedom movement, but the next generations of the country were not made aware of the sacrifices of such national heroes and national heroines. Many generations of the country were deprived of knowing their stories, the prime minister lamented. 

“Twenty-first century India is correcting these mistakes of the 20th century,” the prime minister remarked.

Paying rich tributes to Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, he said, “The life of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh teaches us the indomitable will and a willingness to go to any extent to fulfil our dreams, adding that Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh strived for the independence of India and devoted every moment of his life to this. 

“Today, when India is moving on the path of education and skill development at the time of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the establishment of the University in the name of this worthy son of Ma Bharati is the real ‘karyanjali’ to him,” the prime minister said. 

The university, he emphasised, will emerge as a big centre of higher education and a centre of modern defence studies, defence manufacturing-related technology and manpower development. The new National Education Policy’s features of skills and education in the local language will benefit this university to a great extent, he added.

Today, the country is manufacturing defence equipment from modern grenades and rifles to fighter aircraft, drones and warships, he said, adding that India is moving out of the image of a big defence importer of the world and moving towards making a new identity of an important defence exporter of the world. Uttar Pradesh is becoming a huge centre of this transformation and the prime minister took pride in this as he is MP from Uttar Pradesh. He informed that one and half dozen defence manufacturing companies will create thousands of jobs with hundreds of crores of rupees investment. New industries are coming up to support the manufacture of small arms, armaments, drones and aerospace-related products in the Aligarh Node of the Defence Corridor. This will give new identities to Aligarh and nearby areas. The prime minister pointed out that Aligarh, which was famous for protecting the houses and shops with its famous padlocks, will now also be famous for creating products that will protect the boundaries of the nation. This will create new opportunities for the youth and MSME, he said.

Today, Uttar Pradesh is emerging as a very attractive place for every small and big investor of the country and the world as the necessary environment for investment has been created and the necessary facilities are made available, Modi said. Uttar Pradesh is becoming a great example of the double engine government's double benefit, he added.

The prime minister expressed happiness to see the same UP which was earlier seen as a stumbling block in the development of the country, is leading the big campaigns of the country today.

He said the people of UP cannot forget the kind of scams that used to happen and how the governance was handed over to the corrupt. Today, the prime minister said,  Yogi ji's government is sincerely engaged in the development of UP. There was a time when the administration here was run by goons and mafia arbitrarily. But now the extortionists and those running the mafia raj are behind bars, the prime minister said.

He highlighted the efforts of the UP government in ensuring the security of the most vulnerable sections during the pandemic and praised the way foodgrain was made available to the vulnerable and poor sections during the pandemic. The prime minister said the central government is making constant efforts to give strength to the farmers with small landholdings. Many initiatives like increasing MSP by 1.5 times, expansion of Kisan Credit Card, improvement in the insurance scheme, provision of pension of Rs3,000 are empowering small farmers. He also informed that payment of more than Rs1,40,000 crore has been made to the sugarcane farmers of the state. He said that the sugarcane farmers of western UP will reap benefits from increasing ethanol content in petrol.