Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has invited NRI entrepreneurs to invest in her state, asserting that her government was taking all steps to create a congenial atmosphere and will provide all possible facilities.

Seeking investments in all fields, she told the NRIs that they could contribute especially in the field of education by establishing or helping to upgrade educational institutions in the area where their ancestors lived.

At a reception organised by the Uttar Pradesh Association of Mid-Atlantic Area on Sunday, she urged non-resident Indians especially from UP, to become partners in the development of state by contributing their expertise, talent and money.

Her government, she said, had established 7000 primary schools in villages and set up four special industrial estates in the last one year.

It had taken extensive steps for the development of the state and given attention to improve infrastructure, especially construction of roads, she added.

Uttar Pradesh, she told the cheering audience, is the only state to have a surplus budget.

Mayawati said most of members of the 22-member delegation accompanying her were connected to industry, which showed her government's commitment of to put the state on the fast track of development.

She said her government was laying emphasis on developing of rural areas so as to stem the flow of job seekers to the cities and urged entrepreneurs to help in this area.