Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (October 20) inaugurated an international airport at Kushinagar in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The Prime Minister said that the development of Kushinagar is one of the major priorities of the Central and UP governments.
Buddhist pilgrimage site with few Buddhists
Kushinagar is the place where Buddha attained Mahaparinirvana in 483 BCE, and is, therefore, an international Buddhist pilgrimage site. However, it has a negligible population of Buddhists.
As of 2011 India census, the majority of Kushinagar district’s population of 35.64 lakhs were Hindus (29.28 lakhs), followed by Muslims (6.20 lakhs), and Christians (5,006). The district’s Buddhist population was only 4,619, or 0.12 percent of the total.
Ten other districts of UP – Kheri, Maharajganj, Siddharthnagar, Sultanpur, Basti, Mainpuri, Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Hardoi, and Azamgarh — have larger Buddhist populations than Kushinagar.
Kheri, which has been in the news for the deaths of eight people, including four protesting farmers on October 3, had the largest Buddhist population (18,454) among all the districts of UP in 2011.
Kushinagar International Airport was inaugurated on Wednesday, October 20, 2021 with the first flight from Colombo, whose passengers include a group of revered monks. (PTI photo)
One of the poorest districts of the state
Kushinagar is one of the poorest districts of Uttar Pradesh in terms of income level.
According to the District Domestic Product (DDP) data released by the Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Economics and Statistics, the per capita DDP of Kushinagar at constant prices (2011-12) during the financial year 2019-20 was Rs 27,229.23 – UP’s per capita Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of much less than Rs 44,618.26; and less than a third of India’s per capita GDP of Rs 94,566 in the same year.
At current prices, Kushinagar’s per capita DDP is Rs 41,250.15, which is much lower than UP’s per capita GSDP (Rs 65,704.28) and the country’s per capita GDP (Rs 1,34,186).
In terms of per capita DDP, Kushinagar was ranked 61st out of 75 districts of UP in 2019-20, the latest comparable figures available.
Agriculture, forestry and fisheries contributed about 36.17 per cent to Kushinagar’s DDP, while the manufacturing sector contributed just 4.85 per cent.
The tertiary sector (services) contributed about 50 per cent of the district’s domestic product.
Inside view of Kushinagar International Airport (PTI photo)
Congress-BJP battleground
Kushinagar is in the Gorakhpur division in the eastern part of the state. The district headquarter is at Padrauna. Kushinagar was a part of neighboring Deoria district until it became a separate district on May 13, 1994, when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister.
There are seven assembly constituencies in Kushinagar- Khadda, Padrauna, Tamkuhi Raj, Fazilnagar, Kushinagar, Hata and Ramkola. Five of these assembly constituencies are part of the Kushinagar Lok Sabha constituency; The remaining two – Tamkuhi Raj and Fazilnagar – are part of Deoria Lok Sabha constituency.
Five of the seven assembly seats in Kushinagar are currently held by BJPWhich has a thumping majority in the Legislative Assembly. Congress and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party have one seat each.
Political stalwarts like Swami Prasad Maurya, who is the Minister of Labour, Employment and Coordination in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet, represent the Padrauna assembly seat, while Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu represents Tamkuhi Raj.
Kushinagar Lok Sabha seat is represented by Vijay Kumar Dubey of BJP. The BJP snatched the seat from the Congress in 2014, when Rajesh Pandey (Guddu) defeated the sitting Congress MP and minister. Manmohan Singh Govt, RPN Singh.
Before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Kushinagar Lok Sabha seat was known as Padrauna.
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