People in Uttar Pradesh were ready to give lakhs in bribes to get a job as a clerk or even a sweeper but would not use the same money to open a paan or sweet shop, said Urban Development and Energy Minister in the Yogi Adityanath administration AK Sharma, in Ahmedabad, Friday. Marketing itself as the "largest consumer and cheapest labour market" in India, the UP government delegation led by Sharma, invited entrepreneurs from the state for the UP Global Investors Summit. He conducted a road show in the city where deals worth Rs 40,000 crore were inked. “As per the culture of UP, people hunt for jobs. Be it small or big, private or government, the first priority is to search for a job and not to set up their own enterprise. People are ready to give lakhs in bribes to get a job as a clerk or sweeper. But they will not be ready to use that money to open a pan, sweet or tailor shop. If you come to UP, I am sure entrepreneurship will increase in the state,” he added. A former bureaucrat from Gujarat, Sharma who addressed the gathering in Gujarati, said, “We have not come to attract your investments. We have come to take you (to UP). The way Arjun took Lord Dwarkadish to Hastinapur, the way we took Narendra Modi to Varanasi, and the way we took Anandiben Patel (UP Governor) to Lucknow.” He was accompanied by Cabinet Minister Jitin Prasada, Minister of State Jayendra Pratap Singh Rathore and Advisors to Chief Minister Avanish Awasthi, GN Singh and other senior officials of the UP government. “UP offers the biggest market in the country. It is not just limited as a consumer market. If you want to make cheap goods and supply it to the world, then the biggest labour market is in Uttar Pradesh," he said, adding, the labour force in the state was the cheapest and the most hardworking. Pointing out how Gujarat faced drought, cyclone and an earthquake at the beginning of the 2000s, he said, "Today, Uttar Pradesh is at the same stage, where Gujarat took off under Narendra Modi in 2001. The opportunity (to invest) should not be lost,” Sharma added. Trying to reconnect with the investors from Gujarat, he said, “I personally know 50 per cent of you all present here. I cannot forget the love and respect that I received from people and the leadership of Gujarat. Whatever I have got in my life, a large part of it is from Gujarat,” he said. He also thanked firms such as Zydus, Torrent and Reliance for helping UP to counter the Covid-19 pandemic. “Yogi Adityanath is following the Gujarat model. Uttar Pradesh is that state without which the brand India story cannot be complete. So, I urge you to show interest and see for yourself the transformation," Jitin Prasada said during the roadshow. As many as 22 investors from Ahmedabad signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) amounting to Rs 40,000 crore during the meetings and roadshows organised at a hotel Friday. While pharmaceutical firm Torrent Pharma signed the largest MoU—for Rs 25,000 crore, Amul India signed an MoU of Rs 900 crore to set up a new milk plant in UP's Baghpat. Nine MoUs were of Rs 1,000 crore or more. UP received investments in sectors such as milk processing units, dairy farm, research and development lab, training of herdsman, renewable energy, solar city, pharma park and green hydrogen, among others.
