JOIN USUnion Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that saffron-clad Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will deliver on development and take everyone along in the state.
“Yogi Adityanath will lead UP on the path of development. He will prove skeptics wrong once and for all. Unfortunate that some opponents, communalists are trying to portray him as a rabble-rouser and fringe personality,” Naidu, who was among the two central observers for selecting the new chief minister, wrote on Facebook on Monday.
Naidu quoted a couple of Muslims to conclude that a “large number of Muslims seem to be celebrating his becoming chief minister”.
Referring to published reports, he stressed that Mohammad Kaleem Farooqui, a 25-year-old trader, welcomed the elevation of Yogi to the top post. “He (Farooqui) says Adityanath’s elevation will not affect the state’s Muslims adversely,” the minister stated.
Naidu said that Adityanath was the first to propose the name of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam for President, and that the chief minister will follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas agenda.
Naidu argued that before judging Adityanath’s personality, critics should go through his parliamentary debates.
The Union minister also said that the five-term MP is a “man without family and is above personal corruption” — a sentiment that is also associated with Modi. Naidu also tried to discount that Adityanath was a last-minute choice, which toppled the chances of Union Minister Manoj Sinha.
“Yogi’s name was proposed and unanimously approved by 312 BJP and 13 ally MLAs. He is a strong politician and committed to help the downtrodden,” he wrote.
Attempting to defuse the media glare on the fact that Adityanath is a Rajput since his original name was Ajay Singh Bhist before he left his family in Uttarakhand, Naidu said it was also “unfair to attribute a caste to him. He is a Yogi. People of all communities are celebrating his becoming the chief minister. He is a holy man... caste doesn’t stick to him”.
DH News Service
CM asks bureaucrats to declare assets
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday asked bureaucrats to declare their assets within a fortnight, DHNS reports from Lucknow.
The directive comes a day after his instruction to the members of the council of ministers to give details of their movable and immovable properties within 15 days.
According to an official spokesperson, all the principal secretaries and secretary-level officials will have to declare their assets in a prescribed format. The chief secretary has been asked to prepare the format and make it available to the officers.
UP slaughterhouses under govt lens
Hundreds of abattoirs, many of which are illegal, are under the scanner of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, DHNS reports from Lucknow.
According to officials, the state government will soon launch a drive to identify illegal slaughterhouses in different parts of the state and ensure their closure.
Two such slaughterhouses were forced to shut down by the authorities in Allahabad on Sunday.