PM Modi To Lay Foundation Stone Of University Named After Renowned Jat Figure in UP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday, his office has said.

This will be followed by an address, and he will also visit the exhibition models of the Aligarh node of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor and the university, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

It is said that the university is being established by the UP Government in memory and honour of a freedom fighter, educationist and social reformer, Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh.

The university is being set up in an area spread over 92 acres in Lodha and Musepur Kareem Jarouli villages of Aligarh's Kol tehsil. It will provide affiliation to 395 colleges of the Aligarh division, the PMO said.

The government's decision to set up the university after the noted Jat figure is being seen as a political one. It is believed that the BJP is trying to woo the Jat community ahead of the crucial assembly polls in the state early next year.

A sizeable chunk of Jats who live in western Uttar Pradesh, are seen to be aggrieved with the BJP over the party's recent stance on farmers.

The establishment of a defense industrial corridor (with six nodes - Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Chitrakoot, Jhansi and Lucknow ) in Uttar Pradesh was announced by Modi while inaugurating the UP investors summit in Lucknow on February 21, 2018.

In the Aligarh Node, the land allocation process has been completed, and it has been allotted to 19 firms who are going to invest Rs 1,245 crore in the node, it added.

The corridor will help make the country self-reliant in the field of defence production and promote 'Make in India', it said.

(With PTI Inputs)