Maurya ‘advised’ to shift out of CM’s Annexe office
Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya has shifted out of the ‘fifth floor’ of ‘Annexe’ building after he was ‘advised’ to do so.
This ‘fifth floor’ has been the traditional seat of power as it housed the chief minister’s office over the years.
After visiting the Annexe on Wednesday, chief minister Aditya Nath Yogi got it conveyed to Maurya that he would like to function from the ‘fifth floor’ office as making the new chief minister’s office at Lok Bhawan fully functional may take some time. Although the chief minister functioned from the Lok Bhawan office for some days, he worked at the ‘Annexe’ office on Thursday. After being sworn in as deputy chief minister, Maurya had made his office at the
Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan (Annexe) and began working from where Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav ruled the state as chief minister till recently. “Now, the chief minister’s name plate has been put up on the ‘fifth floor’ office.
Yogi met senior officers at the ‘Annexe’ building here on Thursday,” confirmed a state government officer. The CM had issued instructions to ban use of ‘gutkha’ and ‘pan masala’ in government buildings across UP during his visit to the Annexe.
Maurya has now shifted to his newly-allotted office at Vidhan Bhawan, where senior SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan used to work as minister for urban development and parliamentary affairs. He worked in his Vidhan Bhawan office for some time before leaving for New Delhi on Thursday.
He was officially given the office at Vidhan Bhawan. But he probably liked the ‘Annexe’ more and hence decided to work from there. Maurya’s counterpart -- the other deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma – may, however, work at the ‘fifth floor’ office where Anita Singh worked as principal secretary to the chief minister.
Akhilesh Yadav and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had inaugurated the Lok Bhawan before the 2017 assembly elections. The new chief minister’s secretariat at Lok Bhawan has been constructed on the pattern of the Vidhan Bhawan that was built in 1928. As the about 90-year-old Vidhan Bhawan lacked sufficient space to accommodate offices of the increasing number of officers and employees, the new secretariat building for the chief minister was built.