Akhilesh makes amends, embarks on mass contact

Learning a lesson or two from the drubbing his Samajwadi Party received in the state in the recent Lok Sabha polls, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has decided to establish a direct dialogue with people and personally review the development schemes by making on-the-spot surprise inspections.

Yadav on Wednesday held chaupals (a meeting with the common people) in Shravasti district during his surprise inspection. He spoke to people at Bharthapur village in the district about their problems and difficulties and issued instructions to the officials on the spot.

Yadav was to pay a visit to Hamirpur district but changed his programme at the eleventh hour without informing anyone and instead arrived at Shravasti.

Yadav suspended six senior officials on charges of laxity and ordered strict action against the district magistrate after he was flooded with complaints that the developmental schemes were not reaching the people.

The change in the style of functioning comes in the wake of the drubbing of the SP in the recent elections and the allegations by the party workers that the ‘lax bureaucracy’ of the state was largely responsible for it.

The SP leaders had urged the government to identify the ‘lax’ officials and ‘punish’ them.

The UP government has, after the Lok Sabha polls, shunted a number of senior officials besides suspending some.

Yadav, apparently irked over the ‘laxity’, has sought explanations from several heads of departments.

Sources indicated that action might also be taken against such officials after a review meeting to be held in the first week of next month.

Though several senior officials, including district police chiefs, had been shunted or suspended after the polls, Yadav denied that there was any ‘political angle’ to it.

SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav too had earlier asked his son to make sure that officials implemented the government’s welfare schemes on priority basis.
DH News Service