Chidambaram accuses Yogi of sinking UP into debt trap

Lucknow

Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram on Sunday, February 27, accused Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath of sinking the state into a vicious debt trap.

Talking to the media at the state party headquarters here, Chidambaram asserted the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth rate of UP had dipped from 11.4 per cent in 2016-17 to (-) 6.4 per cent in 2020-21.

“The state debt is to the tune of Rs 6.62 lakh crore, which is 34.4 per cent of the GSDP. About 40 per cent of the debt was accumulated during the Yogi regime,” he said.

Taking a swipe at Yogi, the Congress leader said the UP CM lacked any understanding of economic matters.

“My understanding of Yogi is that he has zero understanding of economics. His government is just borrowing funds without taking steps to expand the GSDP base, which is why the public debt is rising sharply,” he noted.

He regretted despite being the most populous state and producing eight prime ministers, UP was a laggard on all key socioeconomic indicators, including health, jobs, medical facilities, education etc.

The per capita income of UP was less than half of India’s average and under Yogi rule, it had declined by 1.9 per cent, he added.

Chidambaram claimed 38 per cent of UP's population was poor, while 12 and 3 districts had 50 per cent and 70 per cent of population respectively as poverty-stricken.

“The youth of UP is among the worst affected due to high unemployment rate, which is nearly double the all-India average. They have to migrate to other states for jobs,” Chidambaram said.

He alleged there are a large number of vacancies in the government departments, which could not be filled up due to the lack of financial resources.

Meanwhile, the former finance minister sought votes for the Congress to extricate UP from the alleged socio-economic malady exacerbated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

 On February 27, UP witnessed the fifth phase of polling across 64 Assembly segments in 12 districts of the Central and Eastern UP regions.