Uttar Pradesh Lucknow: Recalling the “leading role” played by freedom fighters from the state in India’s first War of Independence in 1857, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked the people to recognise their significance and help lead the country towards the idea of “new India”. He said people here must understand that without prosperity of the state’s 22 crore people, making it the most populous state, prosperity of India is not possible. Read | Independence Day 2018: PM Modi’s speech underlines he’s acted with pace and purpose, impatient to do more Adityanath said that India is one of the oldest countries of the world and has a rich culture but despite possessing everything, it became a slave. He asked people to think why this was so. Exhorting people to contribute to the “new India”, he said there should be no place for “terrorism, Naxalism, corruption, and casteism”. ENS Madhya Pradesh Bhopal: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that Madhya Pradesh has set an example among states by sentencing rapists of minor girls to death, and nine people have been convicted and handed capital punishment in the last six months. Addressing the Independence Day function at Bhopal’s Lal Parade ground, Chouhan said 50 special courts are working to deal with these cases. He said prosperity of farmers was the first priority of his government and claimed farmers have been given full value of their produce, although there is need to increase their income. ENS Maharashtra Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state will build on the rich legacy of progressive Maharashtra founded on the socioeconomic and political reforms of Chhatrapati Shivaji, B R Ambedkar, and Jyotiba Phule. “Maharashtra had inherited great progressive legacy from social reformers and leaders. Today, we have to strive to take forward the progressive legacy which transcends beyond caste, community or religion,” he said. ENS Opinion | Sounding the bugle Karnataka Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy hoped that the Centre would respect and respond positively to public sentiments in favour of holding the Aero India show in bengaluru and not shift it to Lucknow. Raising the issue in Independence Day address, Kumaraswamy said, “The public are strongly opposed to shifting of this event. I have written to the Prime Minister and Defence Minister and brought this issue to the notice of Members of Parliament too.” On demands from various quarters for separate statehood for North Karnataka, he said strong will of the people have silenced the “feeble voices clamouring for division”. PTI Assam Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal assured that names of no genuine Indian citizen residing in Assam will be left out of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), and that names of no “illegal foreigners” will be included in it. Speaking at the flag-hoisting programme in Guwahati, Sonowal thanked 55,000 employees of the state government who are part of the NRC updation process, the 70,000 security personnel who helped maintain law and order during the draft publication, and the people for their cooperation. He stressed that soon after coming to power in 2016, the BJP-led government had promised to free Assam from illegal immigrants. ENS Punjab Ludhiana: Chief Minister Amarinder Singh called for freedom from drug menace and launched a programme to take the war against narcotics to schools and colleges. Singh, who unfurled the Tricolour in Ludhiana, also launched the second phase of the debt waiver scheme for farmers against loans taken from commercial banks, besides rolling out the ‘Bhai Ghanayia Sehat Sewa Yojana’, a health scheme. Lauding the Special Task Force’s efforts to check drug abuse, Singh said that after the success of ‘Drug Abuse Prevention Officers’ programme, another scheme ‘Tu Mera Buddy’ will take the anti-drugs campaign to the grassroots level. The project will involve school and college principals, teachers, students and their parents. The buddy project will be led by teachers and will be supervised by principals and district education officers, he said. Singh also gave ‘waiver certificates’ to 10 farmers to extend to them the benefit of outstanding loan waiver of commercial banks up to Rs 2 lakh. PTI Rajasthan Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje announced that all government school students from classes I to VIII will get milk every day, instead of three days a week as is the norm now, as part of midday meal from next month. The government, she said, will spend an additional Rs 203 crore to implement this. After hoisting the national flag at Sawai Man Singh Stadium here, Raje said that children aged three to six years and pregnant women registered at anganwadi centres will also get milk thrice a week. The state’s education system has gone up by leaps and bounds, with Rajasthan going up from 26th to second position, she claimed. She announced that 94 new schools and 7,080 new classrooms in 2,400 schools have been built by her government. ENS West Bengal Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee unfurled the Tricolour and took salute from a Kolkata Police contingent during a guard of honour. The Independence Day function on Red Road was marked by display of colourful tableaux themed on several schemes and campaigns of the state government. The flag-hoisting was followed by parade by different police wings, including the recently raised ‘Winners’ women police contingent, and personnel of the Odisha Police. Children from schools in Darjeeling hills, and remote Purulia and the Sunderbans presented cultural programmes. PTI Tamil Nadu Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government is committed to all-round development in line with the policies of late J Jayalalithaa, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said. he announced a Rs 2,000 hike in freedom fighters’ pension — from the current Rs 13,000 to Rs 15,000. After unfurling the Tricolour at Fort St George here, Palaniswami also said the state is performing well in social sectors such education, with enrollment in higher education touching 48.6 percent, making the state “number 1” in this aspect. PTI Jharkhand Ranchi: Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das said that from Jharkhand being synonymous with corruption when he took office, people today are proud to announce that they are Jharkhandis. “I don’t say all that was to be achieved has been achieved, but it is also true that when I took over, I would wonder how this state would develop,” Das said in his speech at Morabadi ground here. “Jharkhand had become synonymous with corruption. We took it up as a challenge. Today, you should ask yourself what people outside associate with Jharkhand when they discuss this state.. In fact, any resident of the state can be proud to be a Jharkhandi today.” ENS Odisha Bhubaneswar: Amid heavy rain in Bhubaneswar, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik participated in a short and low-key Independence Day event, and, among others, spoke about the highlights of the BJD’s 18-year governance. “Odisha has contributed significantly to the country’s development as much as it did during the freedom struggle. Social safety and empowerment are our mantras for development. We have focussed on development of farmers, women and young people,” he said. ENS Goa Panaji: In a video message from the United States, where he is recuperating, CM Manohar Parrikar called for support from Goans to ensure development and infrastructure projects are completed on time. He also assured that the state government will ensure that unemployment rates are brought down — in two years, he said, “there will be no unemployed youth in Goa”. ENS Uttarakhand Dehradun: Stating that the Uttarakhand government will show “zero tolerance” towards corruption, CM Trivendra Rawat focussed on his administration’s efforts to strengthen tourism, and the road and railway network in the hill-state. Work on the Rs 12,000-crore all-weather Char Dham road project, announced by PM Narendra Modi before the Vidhan Sabha polls last year, is going on at a fast pace, he said. ENS
