UP holds huge potential in agriculture — it needs right leadership to forge forward-looking path | The Indian Express

UP holds huge potential in agriculture — it needs right leadership to forge forward-looking path | The Indian Express

Written by Harish Damodaran |Updated: May 14, 2019 11:08:35 am

UP holds huge potential in agriculture — it needs right leadership to forge forward-looking path

UP is truly at the crossroads: The state is uniquely poised to leverage opportunities from agriculture and build on the base laid by entrepreneurs, whether in sugar, potatoes, buffalo meat, leather or mentha oil. But, it is equally in danger of being taken back by decades, courtesy leaders with exclusivist and narrow-minded visions.

What began as a crackdown on so-called illegal slaughterhouses has extended to forced closure of tanneries in Kanpur, ostensibly for the ardh kumbh mela from January 15 to March 4. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)

Efforts to market it as an Uttam Pradesh notwithstanding, UP or Uttar Pradesh, is for many, an “Ulta Pradesh” — a place where nothing works, except in reverse. Even more disdainful is “U Pay” — things can work, provided you grease the right palms.