Keep development above politics, says Rajnath

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said development should be kept above politics and hailed the UP government for helping in acquiring land for the 94-km-long outer ring road in his parliamentary constituency - Lucknow.
"Development should not be weighed on the scale of politics," Singh said while laying the foundation stone of the ring road along with Union Minister for Road and Transport Nitin Gadkari here.
The Union Minister also acknowledged the help of state government in acquiring land for the outer ring road to be built at a cost of Rs 5,218 crore.
Stressing on the need for infrastructure and road network, Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the target of taking the GDP to double digits which was possible only by improving the infrastructure.

The GDP was 8.4 per cent during Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, he said.
Singh said as the surface Transport Minister in the Vajpayee government, he had made the ambitious plan of linking national highways.

Gadkari announced the construction of seven flyovers worth Rs 1,000 crore for Lucknow.
"The previous UPA government had laid 2-km road per day and today 22 km road is being laid by the NDA government and the target is to raise it to 42 km per day," Gadkari said.
He said before completion of the Modi government's term, road worth Rs 2 lakh crore will be built in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, BSP supremo Mayawati questioned the need for laying the foundation stone of the ring road in such a hurry and termed it as "election propaganda".
"What is the hurry to lay the foundation stone of the ring road...Even the project director of NHAI, P Shankar has said that it will take six months to complete the tendering process and the work will start only after that," she said in a press release.
Mayawati said such "election propaganda" had been often played by the Congress governments and now the same is being done by the Modi government.
Briefing about the assistance being provided by the

Centre, the Chief Minister said to ensure employment opportunity to youth of Bastar, CRPF's special Bastariya battalion has been raised and recruitment is being done for it.
Similarly, 1,655 jawans of state's District Reserve Group (DRG) were provided training at Vairengte in Mizoram while training of other 350 jawans is underway, the Chief Minister said.
Increasing the number and capacity of mobile towers in the naxal-affected areas would thereby help in encouraging cashless transaction in the region, he said.
The Chief Minister said the morale of the security forces deployed in the Naxal-affected areas is high and they are discharging their duties with full alertness.

"All the success has been achieved in the naxal-affected areas with cooperation from Centre and if it continues, we can win peoples' heart through development and completely get rid of the menace in a couple of years," the Chief Minister said.
Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Principal Secretary (Home), B V R Subramaniam, Chhattisgarh DGP A N Upadhyay and other officials including of CRPF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were among those present in the meeting.
Earlier, talking to reporters at the Raipur airport, the Union Minister said BJP will form government with full majority in Uttar Pradesh.
To a query onthe video posted by a BSF constable recently on social media alleging poor quality food being served to soldiers,the Union Home minister said probe has been ordered in this connection.