Yogi forms Team-9 to tackle second wave

New team replaces Team-11, gets role in oxygen management

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday announced the dismantling of the Team-11 of top bureaucrats formed for managing the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic last year and replaced it with Team-9 that will focus on the second wave. Oxygen management will be one of the key area roles for the functionaries in the new set-up.

Team-9 will directly report to the chief minister just the way Team-11 did till now.

There are nine teams in Team-9. One team each is headed by medical education minister Suresh Khanna and health minister Jai Pratap Singh. The other seven are led by top bureaucrats. They include the chief secretary, industrial and infrastructure commissioner, agriculture production commissioner, additional chief secretary (home), additional chief secretary (revenue), director-general of police and the additional chief secretary (rural development).

“While each team has several senior bureaucrats, the heads of each team are free to co-opt more members as per their requirement,” said a government statement soon after the chief minister made the announcement at the first Team-9 Covid review meeting on Friday.

The two teams are largely identical in terms of the officials who are part of them. The new team structure is more oriented towards the needs of second wave management priorities, said a senior government official. “For instance, one of the major new roles of the new team is oxygen management and oxygen equipped beds. Team-9 is restricted Team-11,” said the officer.

The chief minister’s office also issued an order regarding Team-9 saying: “Team-9 formed in context with the second wave of Covid pandemic and managing it. It will work towards effective management of the second wave, management of ICUs and oxygen equipped beds in hospitals, ambulance services, uninterrupted oxygen supply, lifesaving medicines supplies, controlling peoples’ movement, communicating information to media, management of Covid integrated control and command centres (ICCCCs), industrial management and issues related to migrants.”

Team-11 was formed on March 26 last year.

Sugar mills to run till all cane harvested: CM

Like last year, the state government will continue to run sugar mills till all the sugarcane in the farms gets harvested, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said at a video conference with cane farmers across the state on Friday evening.

“Last year during Covid times, the state ran 119 sugar mills as a continuous process industry and will do it this time as well. The farmers’ interest is among the government’s top priorities. The hard work of the farmers would help the state see through the ongoing intense second Covid wave,” he observed.

“Last year, the government procured sugarcane worth Rs 35,998 crore and paid all that money to the farmers. The state has paid up 63% of cane dues to farmers so far which, in terms of money, is Rs 1,33,100 crore,” he said.

The chief minister thanked the farmers as their crop helped the sugar mills to not only produce sugar, but also large quantities of ethanol as fuel and massive quantities of sanitiser for Covid-19 safety.

He added: “The government also promoted jaggery produced in various regions of the state under the ODOP (one district one product) scheme.”