HT conclave: UP is full of potential but lacks leadership

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) national general secretary Jayant Chaudhary on Saturday said that Uttar Pradesh was full of potential and what it needed was an effective leadership to tap that potential.

He said the government must invest in the social sector and revive the cooperative movement in the state.

Spelling out his party’s agenda for UP assembly polls- 2012, at the HT Conclave, the young MP from Mathura said investment in social infrastructure and agriculture, among other things were the most important things to take the state forward. He said there had to be vision for the state with stable policies.

Emphasizing the need for implementation of police reforms and ordered by the Supreme Court in 2005, Chaudhary suggested that the chief minister should lay off the day- to- day functioning of police administration to allow cops to tackle crime effectively. “He said police reforms should be a part of public policy” he stressed.

He said shortage of electricity was a big hindrance to development of the state. He advised decentralization of power grid allowing societies and groups to produce and sell power locally as being done in many villages in Bihar. He said going by the fact that there was also coal crunch in the country, he suggested sources of renewable energy be tapped ore and more.

Chaudhary said knowledge hubs should be created all over the state to add employability to degrees given by institutions. Food processing, he said, was another area attention should be paid to. He suggested the government had the least role in acquisition of land for developers. “But there must be stability in policies and they should not change with the mood of the chief minister,” added he.