Yogi asks new village pradhans to be impartial
CM tells them to develop panchayat bhawans as village secretariats and play bhajans and patriotic songs there with the consent of all
LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday called upon newly elected village pradhans to work for the people in their respective villages in an impartial manner without any consideration about who voted and who didn’t vote for them in the recently concluded panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh.
“You are now village pradhans. You will work for all, for those who have voted for you and for those who have not done so. Do keep eligibility in mind as you consider people for benefits of various government schemes,” he said while virtually addressing, along with governor Anandiben Patel, about 58,000 newly elected village pradhans after a virtual dialogue with some of them.
He said the panchayat bhawans should be developed as gram sachivalayas (village secretariats) with internet facility and a place to sit for all village officials. He also said good “bhajans” (religious songs) and “rashtra bhakti” (patriotic) songs may be played there with the consent of all.
The governor lauded the chief minister for interacting with the pradhans and asked the village heads to ensure that children received education.
She asked them to keep an eye on the “anganwadi” centres and may also adopt one or two children there. The chief minister said this was for the first time that the governor of any state, along with chief minister, was addressing the newly elected village pradhans. The move showed the importance of the village heads, he said.
Yogi asked village pradhans to ensure that the common service centres were set up in time in their villages and registration for vaccination began.
“We are taking the vaccination centres to the villages to vaccinate people there,” he said.
“Many of you began working to keep a watch on the Covid-19 situation soon after getting elected without taking oath,” he said. He said funds to the tune of about Rs 10,000 crore from the Centre and the state finance commission were available with the panchayats. Listing old age pension, widow pension, housing, Ayushman Bharat and other schemes, he said the pradhans would have an important role to play in selection of beneficiaries. He also said a sum of Rs 2000 may be given to the poor from the village panchayat fund.A sum of Rs 5000 may be provided for performing last rites of the poor if the family was not a position to do so, he added. He said if the village pradhans worked in an impartial manner, they would become popular like Shiv Charan of Lakhimpur Kheri who was elected unopposed for the fourth time. The chief minister also spoke about the role the monitoring committees were playing. He gave the example of a woman village pradhan of Saharanpur who began working even before being sworn in and kept a Covid-19 affected villager at panchayat bhawan and provided food to the patient there.
With the cooperation of the people, UP was becoming comparatively safe from Covid-19 and its recovery rate was better than other states, the chief minister said. He, however, asked them to remain cautious about the coronavirus disease.
“I have seen a section of people are still not wearing masks,” he said. He asked them to maintain cleanliness.