Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav appears to have gone into an overdrive to ensure quick disposal of issues concerning governance even as senior Samajwadi Party leaders, including party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav and state party president Shivpal Singh Yadav met to find a solution to the family disharmony causing fissure in the party.
Keeping in mind the upcoming assembly polls, Akhilesh has been devoting more time to governance than political issues since Monday when developments in the Yadav family began unfolding, indicating a feud.
On Wednesday morning, when Shivpal was leaving Saifai (Etawah) for New Delhi to meet elder brother Mulayam, the chief minister was meeting a delegation of computer instructors at his residence. His assurances resulted in their weeks-long dharna finally ending . He also handed over a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to family members of a woman computer instructor who died due to illness during the dharna.
A few hours later Akhilesh also announced the implementation of the ‘Samajwadi Kisan Evam Sarvhit Bima Yojana’ across the state to provide insurance cover to farmers between 18 to 70 years of age, and having a family income of less than Rs 75,000 per annum.
He made the announcement in the presence of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who was appointed as brand ambassador for the scheme.
{{/usCountry}}He made the announcement in the presence of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who was appointed as brand ambassador for the scheme.
{{/usCountry}}“Chief minister is also holding meetings with his officers and close confidants and no major files are pending for approval,” an official spokesman for the state government said.
Akhilesh also decided to expand the ‘Samajwadi Pension Scheme’ and asked senior officers to identify poor families in urban and rural areas that had been deprived of benefits of the scheme.
Sometime later, Yadav ordered the transfer of 23 IAS officers, 117 sub-divisional magistrates and 13 PCS officers.
On Thursday, he posted ousted chief secretary Deepak Singhal as chairman of the state vigilance commission. He also made the chief secretary’s chief staff officer Bhuvnesh Kumar the new divisional commissioner of Lucknow, replacing Anoop Chandra Pandey. Pandey was made the new principal secretary, finance.
The post of principal secretary, finance fell vacant after Rahul Bhatnagar was made the state’s new chief secretary.
The rejig comes after Akhilesh dismissed two cabinet ministers – Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and Raj Kishor Singh – accused for corruption, and removed chief secretary Deepak Singhal on Tuesday.
Akhilesh also divested his uncle Shivpal of three key portfolios after the latter was made Uttar Pradesh’s Samajwadi Party chief in his place. Within minutes of taking away the public works department portfolio from Shivpal, the chief minister also announced the launch of a scheme for repairing the damaged public roads across the state.
Although the scheme was scheduled to be launched on Wednesday, Akhilesh cancelled the programme, apparently to avoid further embarrassment to his father, who had begun making efforts to resolve the family crisis.