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After appeal by Yogi Adityanath, ministers share Diwali joy with the poor
Yogi Adityanath, who annually celebrates Diwali with Vantangias or the community of forest dwellers, had first tweeted his request and followed it with a public appeal from the Ayodhya stage on Wednesday evening
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday appealed to all the public representatives, officials and employees of the Uttar Pradesh government to adopt a poor family and share the joy of Diwali with them .
Soon afterwards, some of his ministers visited the poor and slum dwellers with sweets and fruits.
Yogi Adityanath, who annually celebrates Diwali with Vantangias or the community of forest dwellers, had first tweeted his request and followed it with a public appeal from the Ayodhya stage on Wednesday evening.
In a press statement, he greeted the people of Uttar Pradesh on the occasion of Diwali, and said the illumination of 0.9 million earthen lamps in Ayodhya indicated the number of beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana who have been handed over keys of houses allotted to them under the scheme. He said 4.3 million houses were made available to the poor in urban and rural areas up to now.
Yogi Adityanath also said that there are eight lakh (0.8 million) public representatives, party and government functionaries, along with about 20 lakh government officials in the state.
“If all of them take it upon themselves, I am pretty sure that not one poor family would be left out of the celebrations,” he said.
“Ensure no poor, Dalit, poor or backward is left out of the Diwali celebrations,” Yogi Adityanath had said earlier in the day.
“May this festival of Diwali be very auspicious for the people of the state. May the blessings of Lord Ram be with you all,” he said.
In Ayodhya, he also announced extension of the government’s free ration plan for poor till March 2022, the time by which Uttar Pradesh assembly elections would have been held.
Industrial development minister Satish Mahana said he would spend Diwali with the poor as well as families of martyrs while state’s MSME minister Sidharth Sath Singh said he would spend time with slum dwellers in Noida.
UP’s minister of state Dharamvir Prajapati was seen visiting slum dwellers in Agra with gifts and the state’s minister of state for minority welfare Mohsin Raza spent time with specially-abled children in Lucknow on Diwali eve.
From deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, to Jal Shakti minister Mahendra Singh, Lucknow mayor Sanyukta Bhatia to UP’s director general of police Mukul Goel, ministers, public representatives, officials all visited various places across the state to celebrate the festival.
