On 19 March 2017, India’s most populous state got its 21st Chief Minister, a Mahant of the historic (and powerful) Gorakhnath Math located in Gorakhpur. The selection of Yogi Adityanath for the top post came as a surprise to many, even to those who had no doubts about the return of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power after 15 years with an absolute majority.
Ever since he came to power, Yogi Adityanath has been in the news almost every day in the last 365 days for reasons good or bad. While he has undertaken a slew of initiatives, some of which are firsts, there are others that have landed him in controversies.
Here is a quick look at the five major areas that have been the focus of the discourse of Yogi Adityanath’s governance.
1. Law & Order
The first step that the Adityanath government took was in the direction of improving the law-order in the state. The government launched what it called ‘Anti-Romeo squad’ to check the rampant eve-teasing cases reported from across Uttar Pradesh and improve women safety. According to the government, 1987 reports have been filed ever since the formation of the squad and action was taken against 3,418 eve-teasers. Further, 1,77,522 complaints were solved via a special ‘women power line’ 1090. Yet in spite of this, there were reports claiming that the anti-Romeo squad was indulging in moral policing.
What Yogi Adityanath’s government the talk of the country was the manner in which it went after criminals. The government says that in the last one year, 45 criminals have been killed and 3,065 criminals arrested in 1,294 encounters across the state. Indeed, there were regular reports of criminals falling to the bullets of the Uttar Pradesh police. This year, there were 15 encounters in the first two days of February alone. Such has been the fear in the criminals that many of them entered jails to avoid getting killed in encounters. But this, too, has not been a blot-free achievement. The NHRC issued notice to the state government over an alleged fake encounter in Noida, raising questions and fears on the level of power granted to the police. The death of an eight-year-old during an encounter operation, too, raised questions on the police and the administration.
Besides bumping criminals and ensuring the safety of women, 2,596 complaints against land mafia have been registered ever since Adityanath came to power. His government has also said that 523 new buildings have been constructed for the police force.
2. Electricity
For a state that is the nation’s most populated, Uttar Pradesh has been on the lower end of electricity supply for quite a few years now. But in his second Cabinet meeting, Adityanath ordered 24 hours power supply to district headquarters. As per the CM’s order, tehsil headquarters are getting 20 hours of power supply and villages are getting 18 hours of power, with uninterrupted supply from dusk to dawn.
To match the Centre’s massive solar electrification ambition, the UP government completed the construction of 335MW solar power project.
The government also claims that the frequency of repair or replacement of damaged transformers now stands between 24-48 hours.
3. The UP investors Summit
Perhaps the single biggest achievement of the state government in development of the state has been the Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit held in February this year. Yogi Adityanath said that the state has signed 1,045 MoUs worth Rs 4.28-lakh crore on the first day of the summit. Investment proposals came from leading industrialists, including Reliance Industries Limited’s Mukesh Ambani, Adani group’s Gautam Adani and Aditya Birla Group’s Kumar Mangalam Birla. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a defence corridor for the state – one of the two to come up in India.
Read More: UP to be connected by defence industrial corridor: PM Modi
4. Road Connectivity
In April 2017, Yogi Adityanath had claimed that he will make the state “gaddha mukt” (pothole free). In a year’s time, his government claims to have filled potholes in around 1,01,000 km length of roads. Road construction has been a major agenda of both the Centre and state governments. The UP government says that it has completed construction of 110 roads of 1,048 km length to ensure better connectivity between villages and towns. A slew of bridges, too, have been built and 7,583 villages have been connected to bus service.
In June 2017, the state government signed an MoU with Rajasthan to improve inter-state transport connectivity. Similar MoUs were signed between the state and other neighbouring states like Haryana. In December 2017, an MoU was signed between UP government and the governments of Jammu-Kashmir and Uttarakhand for movement of buses. The issue of the movement of buses between Uttarakhand and UP was pending since 2000.
5. Farmers
In February this year, Adityanath announced a relief of Rs 50 crore for farmers in 15 districts who suffered losses due to hailstorm. This step was in line with the state government’s push to ensure that the most important section of the society remains satisfied with it.
According to the government, Rs 20,598.31 crore loan waiver was granted to 34.11 lakh farmers, pending payment of sugarcane worth Rs 27,000 crore was done, and record purchase of 37-lakh metric tonne of wheat and 42.54-lakh tonne of grains was made for a total payment of Rs 12,620 crore.
In fact, part of the reason behind filling potholes was to ensure that farmers are able to take their produce to the markets quickly.
6. Health
Yet everything has not been rosy for the Yogi government. The biggest jolt has been in the area of healthcare. The deaths of 30 children in Gorakhpur’s BRD hospital on 9 August exposed the frail condition of the state’s healthcare mechanism. The government – and Adityanath himself due to the fact that he was the MP from Gorkahpur for 5 straight terms – came in for severe criticism. It was alleged that the deaths had happened due to shortage of oxygen. The government rejected the charge and launched a probe.
The Yogi government has now stated that it has constructed 76 newborn care unit in 62 district maternity hospitals and medical colleges and 77 per cent children have received immunisation under the Mission Indradhanush in four phases in 52 districts and 8 urban areas. But in February, the news of around 40 people getting infected by HIV due to a quack using a single syringe on everyone in the name of cheaper treatment exposed the loopholes in the healthcare system.
Some other issues which have put the government on the backseat have been the closure of ‘illegal’ slaughterhouses, Saharanpur caste clashes of May 2017 and the 26 January 2018 Kasganj violence.