In 100 days, UP's Yogi shakes babudom out of complacency

Lucknow: As the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh inches towards its 100th day in office, the single largest achievement of the chief minister has been shaking the state machinery out of its complacency.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, within hours of assuming office, made it clear that he would not accept the existing work culture that had shrunk the actual working hours to about five hours a day. He began with meetings with ministers and bureaucrats that began in the evening and continued till well past midnight—a drastic change for officials who were in the habit of not spending more than five working hours in the offices.

The CM also ensured that the new work culture was adopted in the districts and even in smaller towns where officials now make it a point to remain present in office at least during working hours.

Within his first 100 days in office, Yogi Adityanath also made sincere efforts to implement the promises made by the BJP in its Lok Sankalp Patra, though some of them have generated considerable controversy. The clamp-down on illegal slaughter houses in the state and the setting up of anti-Romeo squads were decisions that went awry mainly due to ineffective implementation and overzealous cops.

The loan waiver scheme has also brought problems for the Yogi government that is finding it difficult to manage the fiscal burden of Rs 36,000 crore. This, coupled with '34,000 crore for the implementation of the seventh pay commission recommendations for government employees, has put an additional burden of a whopping over Rs 70,000 crore on the state’s coffers.

With this, the pace of development in the state is bound to slow down, especially when it comes to mega projects like Purvanchal expressway. The law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, however, remains the government’s Achilles’s heel.

Caste clashes in Saharanpur , a series of incidents of rape and murder and the laid back attitude of the police that is yet to be de-politicised, have not only taken the sheen off the Yogi government, but have also given the Opposition a reason to attack the government.

Attacks on cops by right-wing activists, cow vigilantism and the reluctance of the government to rein in such elements have also attracted criticism. The Opposition and the ruling BJP, meanwhile happily play the blame game. While chief minister Yogi Adityanath claims that he has inherited “empty coffers and jungle raj” from the previous Samajwadi government, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav accuses the Yogi government of “not doing anything except making promises and wielding the broom for the cameras”.