SP has shown its true colours in ticket distribution: Yogi

In a scathing attack on Samajwadi Party, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that by giving tickets to criminals and history-sheeters responsible for mass exodus of Hindus from Kairana as well as the Muzaffarnagar riots, the party’s leadership had shown its true colours.

“Once again the SP has proved that social justice to it means shielding and providing shelter to mafia and gangsters who forcibly capture properties of the poor and the downtrodden, the small traders and the respectable citizens,” the chief minister said.

However, Yogi Adityanath added, his government created a scare among the mafia and criminals in the last five years and kept them on the run throughout and would carry on this crusade against them further when the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power with people’s blessings in the coming election.

Chief Minister Yogi said that the opposition party concerned had already sensed trouble and, therefore, it was shying away from releasing its list of candidates.

Addressing a press meet after a visit to Santosh Hospital at Ghaziabad to take stock of its preparations to tackle the third wave of the novel coronavirus outbreak, the UP chief minister said that the state had set a model within the country, as India had globally under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in terms of protecting lives and livelihood of people throughout the ongoing pandemic.

Yogi said: “India has set a record by administering 157 crore doses of Covid vaccine since January 16, 2021, when the vaccination drive was launched while UP has given the highest 23.15 crore doses in the country. In Uttar Pradesh, 94 per cent of the population has received the first dose whereas 60 per cent has been given the second dose of the vaccine. In Ghaziabad alone, 98 per cent of its population has been given the first dose while 69 per cent has received the second dose also.”

According to the chief minister, 13,000 youths aged 15 to 17 years had been given the first dose of the vaccine in the district. Yogi said that precautionary doses were also being given to frontline health workers.

Yogi Adityanath added that the third wave, though seemingly not as dangerous as the second, could prove to be risky particularly for the elderly, women and children, and that people must avoid crowded places and wear masks to keep the virus away.

The chief minister said that an awareness programme was also being run in UP to motivate people to follow the Covid protocol and those aged 15 years and above who had not taken the vaccine, to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

The chief minister added that the government was monitoring the situation closely and the CM Helpline as well as the Integrated Covid Command and Control Centre were making 50,000 calls daily to keep track of suspected cases even as the state had more than one lakh active COVID-19 cases of which over 10,000 were in Ghaziabad alone. The chief minister, however, added that less than one per cent of the active cases in UP were in hospitals.

He thanked the prime minister for giving two vaccines against COVID-19 within a very short period of time, a feat appreciated across the world, adding that the malicious campaign of the opposition against the vaccines was an “inhuman” act.

Chief Minister Yogi was accompanied by Minister of State for Health Atul Garg and MP from Ghaziabad and Union minister of state Gen (Retd) VK Singh. The chief minister also visited Ingraham Institute to inspect the vaccination campaign.