Lucknow, March 13 :Global poverty cannot be eliminated without eradicating it in Uttar Pradesh which is home to the highest number of poor in the country, World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim said on Tuesday after visiting the state.
In a joint press conference with state Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav here, Kim said, "We have called on two fundamental ideas one is end to poverty ... In this generation, we think that we can end the poverty."
He said there is no way the plan could be successful in achieving the aim of eradicating poverty without being successful in Uttar Pradesh.
"The World Bank Group's mission of eradicating global poverty and boosting shared prosperity cannot be fulfilled if Uttar Pradesh continues to be home to 66 million of India's poor the highest in any state," Kim said in a World Bank release.
Later in the day, Kim visited Kanpur and assured that the bank would expedite project for cleansing river Ganga.
The World Bank is supporting the National Mission Clean Ganga through a USD 1 billion project which is being implemented in five basin states, including Uttar Pradesh.
Akhilesh in a meeting with Kim here sought financial assistance of over USD 3.5 billion (around Rs 19,000 crore) from the World Bank over the next 5 years for development of rural and urban infrastructure, according to the statement.
Kim, who is on a three-day visit to India, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi yesterday. It is his first India visit after taking over as President of World Bank Group in July last year.
