Lucknow, Feb. 13 -- Uttar Pradesh has secured investments worth Rs.12.9 lakh crore on the ground through four Ground Breaking Ceremonies (GBCs), state finance and parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna said on Thursday during Question Hour on the fourth day of the Budget Session. He also questioned the opposition's investment record during its tenure. Opposition members targeted industrial development minister Nand Gopal Nandi while he was replying to a Samajwadi Party MLA's question on investments. Unhappy with the response, the member alleged the government was inflating figures and claimed only 9% of proposals had translated into progress. Other opposition legislators joined in, calling the data misleading, leading to a heated exchange that disrupted proceedings and prompted Khanna to intervene. "Between April 1, 2017 and February 20, 2026, a total of 15,99,699 workers were given jobs. EPFO membership has risen from 21.24 lakh in 2017-18 to 40.2 lakh now. These numbers prove employment," Khanna said. On jobs for Dalits and backward classes in the private sector, he said hiring is based on skill requirements and not caste categories. Khanna added that national industrial growth stands at 11.9%, while Uttar Pradesh's is 25%. He outlined three stages of investment: MoU, groundbreaking and implementation, saying investors assess law and order, raw material availability and other factors before committing funds....