CM, GoMs’ bid to take governance to doorstep
LUCKNOW : When chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited Ayodhya and stayed there overnight on Friday, he did so as part of a statewide exercise under which he along with his ministers is touring districts in a bid to take the governance to doorstep of the people of Uttar Pradesh.
Yogi, who recently reviewed development projects in Gorakhpur, will undertake more such tours along with his two deputy chief ministers and other ministers.
“Yes, chief minister will be visiting 25 districts. The two deputy chief ministers will also be visiting 25 districts each to cover the remaining 50 districts. These tours are in addition to the visits of group of ministers (GoMs) to the divisions/districts,” said a senior officer.
Yogi has constituted 18 GoMs to visit 18 divisions of the state. Senior ministers, including two deputy chief ministers, have been made incharges of the 18 GoMs. The GoMs have been asked to complete their visits before commencement of the budget session of state legislature in coming weeks. The ministers have been asked to camp in divisions/districts under their charge, view presentations about ongoing development projects and listen to problem of the people there.
As minister for energy AK Sharma is incharge of GoM for Ayodhya division, he too is accompanying Yogi during the latter’s tour to Ayodhya.
“Had the opportunity of coming to Ayodhya today (Friday). There will be participation in various programmes with honourable chief minister. As time was short, encouraged power workers by visiting the 11 KV power station located in Shringar Haat,” said Sharma in a tweet.
Yogi’s next stop is expected to be Jhansi/Lalitpur where the GoM led by minister for child development Baby Rani Maurya recently visited. Maurya along with the ministers of state, who accompanied her there, will soon submit the tour reports. Minister for agriculture Surya Pratap Shahi has visited Meerut. Minister for finance Suresh Khanna is continuing his tour to districts of Lucknow division. He was in Unnao on Friday.
“Some of the ministers, who have not completed their tours for some reasons, will do so in the next few days,” said another officer, adding, “Ministers are directly reporting to the chief minister’s office.”
“The Yogi government is the people’s own government and is working for them. The ministers are making field visits to ensure that the government functions for people in a better manner,” said Vijay Pathak, BJP MLC and party’s Uttar Pradesh unit vice president. “This is also an exercise to make the ministers aware about governance and implement the BJP’s 2022 Sankalp Patra,” said UP BJP spokesman Avnish Tyagi.
The opposition is, however, not amused. Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary called the visits of chief ministers and ministers a “show off”.
He said this is the second BJP government and instead of indulging in such tactics, the government should work to solve the problems of the people.
“Visits of chief minister and ministers to districts are bound to have a good impact on the government. For good governance, the government must reach the doorstep of the people. This will certainly help if the ministers do their job sincerely,” said prof SK Dwivedi, former head of department, political science, Lucknow University.
At a meeting of his council of ministers on April 26, CM Yogi Adityanath had asked his ministers to visit and camp in districts in the division under their charge before the budget session of the state legislature.
He had also asked senior officers to make a presentation about the status of implementation of various development projects to the GoMs.
After the tours, the ministers would have to make a presentation about their tours before the state cabinet.