Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a programme commemorating ‘Veer Bal Diwas’, in Lucknow on December 26, 2022.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Buoyant after the positive feedback received from the month-long Kashi-Tamil Sangamam, the Uttar Pradesh government plans to create a dedicated food street in various cities to introduce locals and tourists to cuisine from different States of India in a bid to showcase the State’s ‘soft’ power. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the Cultural Ministry to co-ordinate with the Housing department and other authorities concerned and prepare an action plan for creating such dedicated food streets in cities with food varieties from different States.
It is likely that the project will materialise in major cities like Lucknow, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Agra and Varanasi before the Maha Kumbh 2025 to be held in Prayagraj.
Mr. Adityanath, while addressing a Cultural Ministry function, said, “Food streets would introduce people to food from different States and they would know what to look for when they travel to States like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh etc. In these dedicated food streets, people can get food not only from different parts of the country, but also from different parts within the States like Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Bundelkhandi and Braj in Uttar Pradesh and Garhwal and Kumaon in Uttarakhand.”
‘Inclusive State’
The government is giving a push to such initiatives with an aim to project Uttar Pradesh as an inclusive State and counter, what it alleges, ‘misconceptions’ about the State formed due to negative ‘propaganda’ run by some vested interests. “Twelve groups from Tamil Nadu were in Kashi for a month. These groups also visited Ayodhya and Prayagraj. This cultural exchange cleared the Tamils’ misconceptions about Uttar Pradesh and north India which they had formed due to negative propaganda run by some vested interests,” said Mr. Adityanath.
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