Yogi Adityanath completes a month as UP CM: Reshuffles 41 IAS officers

In 30 days, Yogi deftly nurtured his image as action oriented, austere and hard taskmaster

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has completed an action-packed and eventful month in office.

Yogi had taken oath on March 19 as the 21st chief minister of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During the past one month, his government has moved swiftly towards fulfilling the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) pre-poll promises, including a crop loan waiver of over Rs 36,000 crore, ‘Power to All’, closure of illegal slaughterhouses, formation of anti-Romeo squads, and institution of inquiry on the previous government’s projects with regards to extravagance and alleged corruption.

Yogi rounded off his first 30 days in office by transferring 41 senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, including seven divisional commissioners and as many district magistrates (DM).

While fresh postings were given to three officers who were earlier been waitlisted, two IAS officers were shunted to the waiting list on Tuesday. These were Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) vice-chairman Satyendra Singh and Rudra Pratap Singh, secretary and additional housing commissioner, Housing Board.

In a fresh order, the state government transferred UP Resident Commissioner in New Delhi, Dr Prabhat Kumar as commissioner Meerut, with additional charge of chairman Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority in Gautam Budh Nagar district.

Kanchan Verma, district magistrate, Mirzapur, has been transferred as vice-chairman, Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA).

On April 12, the dispensation had reshuffled 20 officers and removed senior bureaucrats heading cash rich Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) in the National Capital Region (NCR).

While, there have been allegations of last scale corruption in the land deals in Noida and Greater Noida spanning the two previous Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) regimes, the Yadav Singh case continues to make headlines for kickbacks and award of land deals in contravention of rules.

However, Yogi has desisted from mass-scale transfer of IAS and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers even after coming to power, as has been the norm during the previous successive regimes.

Akhilesh, on taking over as the UP chief minister on March 15, 2012, had effected the transfer of over 1,000 senior administrative and police officials within a month of taking oath. A majority of those reshuffled were high-rank bureaucrats reckoned loyalists of the previous Mayawati-led BSP regime.

Yadav's predecessor Mayawati, after taking over on May 13, 2007, had shifted over 200 senior IAS and IPS officers within three to four days of taking charge.

In his 30 days in office, Yogi has deftly cultivated his image as an action oriented, austere and hard taskmaster CM through his frugal lifestyle, long working hours, impromptu inspections, public interactions, terse orders and above all not deciding to reshuffle the key posts in the bureaucracy and police departments to shrug off any suggestion of vindictiveness by opponents.

His unorthodox approach of mixing with lower rung staffers, interacting with man on the street and unannounced visits of government offices, hospitals and police stations, has enabled common man to identify with the leader.