As the Lok Sabha polls arrive, there is probably going to be no brakes on rolling out of development projects across different departments in the state. This is so because the Yogi government issued over 1,100 government orders in two weeks prior to the announcement of the election schedule.
About 1,109 GOs were issued from March 1, to 16, 2024, against nearly 1,191 GOs issued in the previous month (from February 1 to 29, 2024) and 1,015 GOs issued from January 1, to 31, 2024.
As chief minister Yogi Adityanath undertook tours covering more than one district every day launching development projects and addressing people ahead of announcement of 2024 Lok Sabha elections, his government sped up pace of governance to ensure smooth implementation of development projects. The CM visited 25 districts between March 1 and 16, 2024.
The state government departments obviously worked at a faster pace to ensure that all the necessary GOs are issued before the Election Commission of India (ECI) announces the poll schedule and the code of conduct comes into force.
Various departments issue financial sanctions to allocate funds for development projects through the GOs before the financial year comes to close in March every year. A break-up of the total number of GOs issued, however, indicates a higher pace of governance close to the announcement of polls.
{{/usCountry}}Various departments issue financial sanctions to allocate funds for development projects through the GOs before the financial year comes to close in March every year. A break-up of the total number of GOs issued, however, indicates a higher pace of governance close to the announcement of polls.
{{/usCountry}}Out of 1,109 GOs issued from March 1 to 16, 2024, the state government issued more than half of them (648) last week from March 11 to March 16, (Saturday). The ECI announced 2024 Lok Sabha poll schedule on Saturday and the state government’s different departments issued 128 GOs that day.
On previous Saturdays of this month, the state government issued only 13 GOs on March 9 and 12 GOs on March 2. No GO was issued on March 17 (Sunday) while around 19 GOs were issued on Monday (March 18).
Senior officers say every government department makes efforts to clear the pending work ahead of announcement of elections by the poll panel and more GOs are obviously issued during such a period.
“All the administrative work is sped up ahead of announcement of election schedule to ensure that it is not affected by the code of conduct,” said former chief secretary Alok Ranjan.
“Yes, such measures are needed to ensure that the development work continues even after the enforcement of code of conduct. This is routine work and is done by every government,” said professor SK Dwivedi, former head of political science department, Lucknow University.