Lucknow: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who was in Nellore on Monday to attend the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Swarna Bharat Trust, said foreign invasions and colonial rule had weakened India’s rural system and disrupted traditional community structures.He said initiatives such as Trust’s Bridge Schools and Uttar Pradesh’s Atal Residential Schools were helping address the social and educational fallout of the colonial era by connecting underprivileged children with formal schooling.“Our goal is to prepare a new generation that is both global and rooted, familiar with modern technology, but carrying India in their hearts, pride in their culture, awareness of their roots, sensitivity toward society, and a spirit of ‘Nation First’. Technology does not discriminate, and new India has connected the strength of villages with technology,” Yogi said.The chief minister described senior BJP leader and former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu as a cultural and spiritual link between North and South India, and credited him with giving Swarna Bharat Trust a distinct identity since its founding.Yogi said Naidu’s simplicity, approachability and ability to work across divides had earned him wide acceptance in public life.“Such a towering personality, one who rises above the boundaries of party and ideology to carry everyone along and enjoys universal acceptance, is rare in public life. This broad acceptance was evident in the way he discharged his duties as Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha,” he said, adding that Naidu’s contribution extended beyond politics, including efforts to popularise Telugu culture, cuisine and attire in other parts of the country.Yogi said Naidu drew inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of Gram Swaraj, envisioning villages that are self-reliant and capable of taking their own decisions. He said Trust, established in 2001, had worked across sectors such as health services, veterinary care, farmer training, women’s training, vocational education and computer training.He singled out Trust’s programme for rural women, noting that it includes separate housing facilities.“As long as the system is not safe, families will not send their daughters outside,” he said, citing Uttar Pradesh’s “BC Sakhi” initiative under Mission Shakti as a model for combining safety with livelihood and service delivery. He said women were trained to use digital devices and linked to banking services, enabling villagers to access banking at home while the local women earned an income.The chief minister also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, noting that Modi began his public service journey in 2001, the same year Trust was founded. He said that, 25 years later, both were working toward the shared objective of Viksit Bharat.Calling villages the greatest strength of India’s civilisation, Yogi said rural areas had historically anchored the country’s economy, social life and culture.Referring to Uttar Pradesh, he said the state had worked to improve rural living conditions and claimed that since 2017, encephalitis cases in eastern UP—once linked to thousands of deaths annually—had been brought down to zero.He also credited Swachh Bharat Mission, launched after Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, as a key contributor to the broader public health and sanitation gains.
