Yogi Adityanath says UP moved from curfews, riots to development

At Panchayat AajTak in Mathura, Yogi Adityanath attacks previous governments over law and order and agriculture, while detailing his government's claims on jobs, tourism, farming and sugar mills.The term 'BIMARU' was coined by demographer Ashish Bose in the mid-1980s for some of the country's poorest states at the time. (File Photo: ITG)Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday accused previous governments of turning the state into a "state of curfews, riots, anarchy and unrest", while pitching his government’s record as a shift from treating challenges as problems to turning them into opportunities.Speaking at the Panchayat AajTak event in Mathura, Yogi said Uttar Pradesh had the resources and potential to become the country’s number one state, but previous governments had failed to make use of them."Those who considered challenges to be problems had turned Uttar Pradesh into a state of curfews, riots, anarchy and unrest," he said."Those who saw possibilities in these challenges have established new benchmarks of success," he added. ‘UP’S POPULATION IS A DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND’Yogi said Uttar Pradesh’s large population should not be seen as a burden, but as a "demographic dividend", pointing to its large youth population, cultural heritage, fertile agricultural land, geographical spread and sizeable market."We have the strength of our youth. We have to connect the scale of our young population with scaling up, connect their skilling with employment and link it with the startup ecosystem," he said. He said the state needed to connect the scale of its young population with skills, employment and entrepreneurship to fully utilise its demographic advantage.Yogi also spoke about Uttar Pradesh’s religious tourism potential, particularly in the Braj region, including Mathura-Vrindavan and Barsana.He claimed that 11 crore devotees and tourists visited the Braj region last year, while 156 crore devotees visited Uttar Pradesh in 2025.According to Yogi, the numbers reflected a new model of connecting "faith with the economy".‘FARMERS WERE TREATED AS A PROBLEM’The Chief Minister also attacked previous governments over their approach to agriculture and farmers.He said Uttar Pradesh had some of the most fertile agricultural land in the country, but alleged that earlier governments treated farmers as a "challenge and a problem"."The result was farmer suicides. The farmer was frustrated and disappointed," Yogi said.He claimed that his government had instead tried to understand the problems faced by farmers and find solutions.Yogi claimed that Uttar Pradesh’s agricultural growth rate had increased from 8% to 21%.He also said the state accounted for 11% of India’s cultivable land while producing 21% of the country’s foodgrains.‘122 SUGAR MILLS OPERATING IN UP’Yogi cited the sugar industry as another example of what he described as the state’s transformation under his government.He said 29 sugar mills had shut down in Uttar Pradesh between 2007 and 2017 and claimed the industry was in a "dilapidated condition" when his government came to power."Today, I am pleased to tell you that we are running 122 sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh. No sugar mill has closed in the last nine-and-a-half years," he said.Yogi also claimed that the state government had paid Rs 3.26 lakh crore in sugarcane dues to farmers through direct benefit transfer.He said sugarcane farmers were currently receiving Rs 400 per quintal and claimed that 110 of the 122 sugar mills were making payments every fourth day.Yogi’s remarks at the Mathura event centred on his government’s claim that Uttar Pradesh’s population, agriculture, tourism and other challenges could be converted into economic and development opportunities rather than being treated as burdens.- EndsPublished By: Sonali VermaPublished On: Sep 3, 2026 19:09 IST