Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath

LUCKNOW: The Adityanath Yogi government in UP seems to have found a merit in wooing students before 2019 Lok Sabha elections, sanctioning a first-of-its-kind fund for building roads in villages where top 10 students of Class X and XII boards reside.

The BJP government’s move is being seen as an attempt to outsmart SP chief and former CM Akhilesh Yadav’s laptop scheme in 2012.

According to an order by PWD’s additional secretary Rajesh Pratap Singh, the government has decided to sanction Rs 1.22 crore initially for the project. The government will spend Rs 50 lakh for a 700-metre road to connect the village of Abhishek Gupta, one of the rank-holders in class X UP board, to the Banda-Bahraich highway, the order says. Similarly, a sum of Rs 72.43 lakh has been sanctioned for a kilometre-long stretch connecting Khojanpur village of Rishika, who ranked ninth in Class XII, to Faizabad bypass.

The project will be implemented by the PWD and the finance department will allocate funds. The roads will be included in PWD’s state highway plan. The decision has been taken during a recent meeting between Yogi and deputy CM Keshav Maurya.

