Mulayam too has a vision, with a little help from friends

Rolling out the red carpet for Anil Ambani of Reliance, Adi Godrej of Godrej Industries, M S Banga of Hindustan Lever, Subroto Roy of Sahara and Amitabh Bachchan, the newly constituted UP Development Council, headed by Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, held an eight-hour long meeting, taking a break only for lunch with Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Bringing development to centrestage, the meeting of the council ended with a resolution which promised:

• In two years, UP will climb to the top of the economic and human index

• New power policy to ensure complete privatisationof transmission and distribution

• Incentives to private investors in the power sector

• Industry policy, last revised in 1998, to change

• Council will undertake major task to change the ‘‘perception’’ of UP in terms of law and order

• Amitabh Bachchan offers to be ‘‘brand ambassador’’ to promote tourism in UP

• Sahara promises direct air link from Lucknow to 14 cities by the year-end, will undertake construction of 50 Sahara colonies modelled on Sahara City in Lucknow

Amar Singh said he had tried hard to impress upon Anil Ambani the need to invest in the power sector. The council discussed construction of a power project worth Rs 10,000 crore but Chief Secretary A P Singh later said no promise was made on that count. Ambani did, however, evince interest in the power sector.

Earlier, Mckinsey, CRISIL and ICICI made their presentations on how they could help lift UP’s economic and human index. Mckinsey global chief Rajat Gupta and his team projected total integration of vegetables, oilseeds and sugarcane in the agriculture sector.

Interestingly, every business head saw a role for himself in the state. Adi Godrej said: ‘‘The potential for development is far greater than that has taken place in UP. We do need to develop infrastructure first and then build on sectors like manufacturing and agro-based industries.’’

Amitabh Bachchan said: ‘‘My say in development will come later when people will prosper and be ready to invest in entertainment industry. It is said that our Hindi movies generate maximum revenue from Maharashtra. UP, being a Hindi-speaking state, should be in the forefront.’’

Amar Singh sounded the gong for sick industries in UP: ‘‘Industries which are bleeding will no longer be tolerated. If we get the right person who can revive it, we will consider giving it to him.’’

Anil Ambani said Reliance industries had already invested Rs 1,000 crore in the state. ‘‘Our commitment is to expand communication in 300 cities of the state. For the power sector, I have offered wide solutions while keeping in mind the larger consumer interest.’’

The council, the first of its kind in the state, decided to meet again in November either in Noida or Agra. The state earlier had an empowered committee, headed by the chief secretary, but defunct.