Yogi announces free coaching facility; likens COVID vaccine to ‘Sanjeevani Booti’

Lucknow, Jan 24: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday announced the launch of an ambitious, state-wide, free coaching facility programme to help students prepare for various competitive examinations.
Named ‘Abhyudaya’, the free coaching facility will start from upcoming Basant Panchmi, the day of worship to the goddess of learning, Saraswati. The chief minister also compared the COVID-19 vaccines given by India to Brazil to “Sanjeevani Booti”, a mythological life-saving herb figuring in the Hindu epic Ramayana.
He made the comparison a day after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro invoked Lord Hanuman while thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to fight the deadly coronavirus infection in his country, one of the worst-hit nations by the pandemic. Referring to the Brazilian president’s tweet of an image of Lord Hanuman flying from India to Brazil with a mountain of the life-saving herb, Adityanath said Bolsonaro himself likened India’s vaccine to ‘Sanjeevani Booti’.
“While saving lives of the countrymen, the COVID-19 vaccines are also reaching other parts of the world,” he said during his address on 71st Uttar Pradesh Sthapna Divas. Speaking about the free coaching facility, the chief minister noted that the educational infrastructure of various universities and colleges would be used for providing this facility to students in the state for which a panel too would be formed.
“From the day of Basant Panchami, ‘Abhyudaya’, the free coaching facility for students of the state appearing in various competitive examinations will commence,” he said. “In the first phase, it will be in 18 divisional headquarters of the state, where coaching will be imparted physically and virtually. Officials will also devote their time and experts will also be posted there,” he said.
“The classes will be held physically as well as virtually and guidance will be given for various examinations be it the NEET, IITJEE, NDA, CDS or UPSC examinations. The coaching centres will give a new platform to youths and motivate them to scale new heights,” Adityanath said.
The chief minister announced the provision for free coaching while recalling his promise last year that no student of Uttar Pradesh will have to leave the state for learning in other states.
Adityanath had made the promise while grappling with the challenge of bringing back to UP over 30,000 students from Kota in Rajasthan where they had been undergoing coaching for various competitive examinations amid the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
On the law and order situation in the state, the priest-turned-politician said, “We are not only tightening the noose around criminals and mafia elements, but also against professional and dynastic (khaandaani) criminals.”
“As a result, UP has moved ahead on the immense scope of investment. We have made government jobs available to four lakh youths,” he added. The chief minister also lamented that despite UP playing a leading role in the country, it did not celebrate its foundation day earlier because people at the helm of affairs of the state earlier never even thought of it.
“When the desire of advancing the culture and tradition of society goes missing among its responsible citizens, society remains in a state of illusion. This illusion for 70 years led to the disorientation of Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma noted, “During the regime of earlier governments, there were no jobs or industries”. (PTI)