LUCKNOW: Armed with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data which reflects that Uttar Pradesh registered one of the lowest per capita income growth during the present BJP regime as compared to the national average and a sharp decline from the Samajwadi Party tenure (2013-17), former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday tore into the ruling BJP for misleading people with claims of providing record employment, growth and development.
The SP national president quoted performance of the five poll bound states from statistics released by the RBI which show that the per capita income growth rate of Uttar Pradesh between 2013 and 2017 when Akhilesh Yadav was the CM was five per cent as compared to a national average of 5.5 per cent.
However, during the financial years 2018-20 (pre-Covid) it came down to three per cent, which was 1.6 per cent below the national average.
As per statistics quoted by the SP chief, the corresponding figures for 2018-2022 forecast a disheartening scenario with per capita growth going down to 1.8 per cent as compared to the national average of 2.7 per cent.
“During the BJP regime the per capita income has been reduced to one-third. Manifold rise in prices of essential commodities and reduction in interest rates on deposits have only worsened the situation.
Now, the BJP should explain if these were the ‘achche din’ (good days) that the party promised before elections,” Akhilesh said.
The SP went on to question claims of the BJP government regarding record employment to youths and the poor. “Either the RBI statistics are computed incorrectly or the state government is lying. Both claims which contradict each other cannot go together,” said a senior SP leader. He said the statistics established beyond doubt that the state was on a ‘real’ growth track during the Akhilesh regime.
“The growth was inching close to the national average which proves that the state’s economy was on the right path then,” he said, adding that now after coming to power in the state next year the SP would definitely walk an extra mile to push the growth figures to where they were during Akhilesh’s previous regime and improve it further.
