Yogi cabinet takes shortcuts to announce existing schemes in UP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made non-payment of sugarcane dues into a major electoral issue in Uttar Pradesh. Observers therefore were caught by surprise when cabinet Minister and government spokesman Shrikant Sharma claimed in Lucknow that 91% of the cane dues had already been cleared.

While the Yogi Adityanath Government is barely three weeks old, Sharma’s claim related to the last two fiscal years, 2014-15 and 2015-16. It was also revealed that the dues had been cleared by the earlier government. While Sharma, asked to comment, maintained a studied silence and chose to evade the question, people are baffled at the BJP raising the issue to a fever-pitch during the campaign and now patting its back for fulfilling its poll promise.

This is not the only instance of the Yogi Government re-packaging old wine in new bottles. The ‘copy-and-paste’ government, which was sworn in on March 19, is yet to come up with new schemes and proposals of its own even though the Cabinet has met twice already.

In the first cabinet meeting, held on April 4, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced farm loan waiver amounting to ₹36,359 crore. Hailed as a master stroke, the decision expected to benefit 86 lakh farmers across Uttar Pradesh was first raised by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who had called on the Prime Minister with the demand.

Yogi Adityanath’s predecessor Akhilesh Yadav referred to Shrikant Sharma’s announcement that the Uttar Pradesh Government had introduced a roster according to which villages would get 18-hour electricity, tehsils 20 hours and district towns 24 hours power supply. This was, in fact, a scheme already in place by the earlier government.

In a tweet, Akhilesh Yadav said it was meaningless to announce afresh what was already available and cited declarations made by his government and advertisements carried by the media during his tenure. People, he said, would not be satisfied with what had already been ensured. Their expectations are much higher, he said while taking a dig at the BJP government.

The tweet showcased an advertisement by the Akhilesh Yadav government, which mentions the same claims.

The state power minister, Sharma, had also declared that 24X7 power supply would be ensured in all important religious places of UP. However, the practice has been prevailing in the state from the tenure of the earlier dispensation. All major temples including Kashi Vishwanath, Banke Bihari temple in Mathura and even Dewa Shariff in Barabanki are provided uninterrupted power supply.