<b>Story in numbers:</b> Too little at base

There is little the govt led by Akhilesh has not done to improve the infrastructure of Uttar Pradesh

There is little the government led by Akhilesh Yadav has not done to improve the infrastructure of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The 302-km controlled-access Lucknow-Agra Expressway is one of the most important road networks of the state, a six-lane stretch, expandable to eight. The Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway, connecting eastern UP and Lucknow, and the Lucknow-Azamgarh-Balia Samajwadi Highway are also being constructed. Along with HCL Technologies, the state government is working on an IT City project in the capital. Rural families with annual income less than Rs 36,000 are entitled to a house to live in, built by the state. Free laptops have been distributed and Akhilesh has promised to do his bit in contributing to the digital economy by offering free smartphones, if his government comes to power again. But, the school education landscape in the state continues to be bleak, data show. The ASER survey (for 2016) shows 3.3 per cent of UP students in Standard 8 cannot recognise letters in the alphabet. And, 67.9 per cent of these students can read only text of the level of Standard 2. The quality of school education belies the notion that if infrastructure improves, the overall condition of human development indices improve. In UP, clearly, this is going to take time. 

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Data: ASER 2016 survey