LUCKNOW, May 8 -- Highlighting the transformation in perception about Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said the state's name gets a welcome smile elsewhere. He was addressing a function organised at Lok Bhavan here to distribute appointment letters to 481 selected candidates for the AYUSH department, vocational education and skill development department and the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities. "Due to accountability, technology, and transparency, Uttar Pradesh has now become the state providing the highest number of appointments in the country," he said. "You go anywhere, the name of UP brings a welcome smile. This is transformation in perception. Before 2017, people across the country and the world used to view Uttar Pradesh with suspicion," he added. "UP was portrayed as a corrupt and lawless state prone to hooliganism," he said. He emphasised that government recruitments in the state are now being conducted in a transparent manner, with "no scope for recommendation or influence" at any stage of the selection process. Even after the examinations, there was no scope whatsoever for unethical means, he said. It is because of this clean intent and clear policy that you are receiving appointment letters today, he added. "Earlier recruitments were carried out on the basis of money, caste, vote bank, religion, and region, resulting in the exploitation of deserving youth. However, in present-day Uttar Pradesh, merit alone has become the basis of selection," he said. He remarked that if a corrupt individual replaced a deserving candidate in the system, that person would continue hollowing out the entire system like a termite for the next 30 to 35 years. Therefore, the government resolved from the very first day to eliminate every possibility of corruption and leakages in the recruitment process, he said. He added that this was the fourth appointment letter distribution programme organised in the last 15 days. "Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Mission Rozgar', the state government has been consistently organising appointment letter distribution programmes. So far, more than nine lakh youths have been provided government jobs," he said. "The government has succeeded in tripling Uttar Pradesh's per capita income, annual budget, and overall economy. UP has now become a revenue-surplus state and the growth engine of the country's economy," he asserted. "More than 4,000 major industries came to UP last year, and over the past nine years, the number of large industries in the state has increased from 14,000 to more than 32,000. UP that was once counted among the bottom three states of the country is now among the top three," he said....