UP Govt Wants People to Get High and Use Liquor Money for Gau Sewa: Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: Former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has taken a jibe at the recently announced cess on liquor by the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in the state for doing ‘Gau Sewa’.

Speaking at Fakirpura village in Kannauj at the #AkhileshKiChaupal programme in association with Twitter, Akhilesh said, “What kind of a government is this, that wants people to consume more liquor so that they can get more tax, which in return will be utilized for Gau Sewa. Indirectly, the government wants people to get high and use the liquor money for a religious cause.”

Vice President of Twitter, Colin Crowell, was also present on the occasion.

The Samajwadi Party president, who was accompanied by his wife and MP from Kannauj, Dimple Yadav, also announced that the Samajwadi Pension Yojna during his regime in which females used to get Rs 500 a month as support money, will be revived once he comes to power and the pension amount will be increased to Rs 2000.

Akhilesh said his government will waive off the interest on loans taken by people for Kamdhenu Yojna, in order to promote Gau Sewa.

Taking questions from Twitter on the issue of recent CBI raids and his name figuring in connection with the illegal mining case, Akhilesh said this was not for the first time that his or his family members were investigated by the CBI. "Earlier it was Congress now its BJP, I, however, thank them as these raids help people in aligning all the papers in a proper way.”

Speaking on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the SP's alliance with BSP and smaller parties like RLD and Nishad Party, Akhilesh said that the party found the "glue" after the BJP lost the CM and the Deputy CM seats in the bypolls last year.

Answering a question on the issue of unemployment, Yadav claimed that his SP government in the state has given the maximum number of government jobs till date. He stated that the SP government had eased police recruitment norms as one of the measures.

“The current government in the state has done nothing but just tall announcements. Recently, an investor’s summit was announced but till date, nothing is seen on the ground. Even the businessmen are now allegedly being given license to import raw materials from abroad; this will be directly affecting jobs of the local youth," he noted.