Modi exhorts citizens to preserve public property and respect efforts of police

LUCKNOW: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday exhorted citizens to introspect about their duties towards preserving public property and amenities as well as respect the efforts of the police force that ensures their safety; and not fall for rumours.

"As we move towards the 75th year of our independence, it has become the need of the hour to lay stress on our responsibilities. I say this because the way some people have propagated violence in the name of protests in Uttar Pradesh and destroyed public property, they should introspect and think about the families of everyone who died and got injured, including the citizens and police personnel," Modi said on his first visit to the state after it witnessed one of its worst episodes of violence and arson last week, beginning from the state capital Lucknow. The violent protests against the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act has killed more than 18 persons in the state and injured many others.

"I would appeal to everyone who has indulged in violence and destroyed public property that while better roads , better transport system are the rights of citizens, to preserve them is our responsibility. While it is our right to demand a safe atmosphere, it is our responsibility to respect the efforts of the police force that works for our safety," he said.

The PM was speaking in the Lucknow secretariat on the occasion of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birthday , celebrated as Good Governance Day. The PM unveiled a 25-foot bronze statue of Vajpayee established inside the premises of the Lok Bhawan as well as laid foundation of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University in Lucknow.

The university, which will give affiliation to 40 medical colleges, 17 dental colleges and 299 nursing and paramedical colleges is expected to enroll more than 6,200 medical students, more than 2000 dental students and 12,544 nursing and paramedical students every year and is aimed at improving the doctor to citizen ratio in the state which currently stands at 1:3700, much worse than the international standard of 1:1000.

He said Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a big beneficiary of the national health programmes initiated by the government including Ayushman Bharat and national nutrition mission and the university is aligned with the national objective of having one medical college among three Lok Sabha seats.

"I am content that the Yogi government is striving to view and solve problems in their totality and the Atal university is a fruit of that," said Modi. He also appreciated the efforts of the Yogi Adityanath government in tackling the menace of the encephalitis syndrome in the state that had claimed more than 500 lives in 2017, when the BJP government came to power , but dropped by more than 65% in one year.


In a bid to instill confidence in the citizens as the year comes to a close, Modi said that solving of "legacy" issues has been a major achievement of the government this year.

"We can say that India is entering the year 2020 with many achievements...whatever social, economic and political challenges we received in legacy, we are continuously striving to solve them. Article 370 was such an old "ailment" but it was our responsibility to solve such problems and it happened smoothly and changed everybody's perception, so did Ram Janmbhoomi," he said.