Yogi transfers Gorakhpur DM, other officials; belatedly addresses farmer distress

Shaken by the ignominious defeat in the bye-elections, the Yogi Government has put focus back on villages as reports have started pouring that it was the agrarian crisis that dealt a body blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) hopes in just concluded byelections to Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats. It’s believed that BJP lost because of anger brewing among the farmers for non-payment of dues as well as non-availability of coarse sand (morang) and sand in the open market.

That Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is focussing on damage control is evident in the way state cabinet that met on Friday for the first time after the byelection results, took a series of decisions to ensure better remuneration to farmers.

The same night, the state government transferred 37 IAS officers including District Magistrate of Gorakhpur Rajiv Rautela, who has been appointed as Commissioner, Devipatan Commissionary. Gorakhpur is the home turf of CM Yogi.

The Yogi government approved the wheat purchase policy with a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of ₹1,735 per quintal, besides ₹10 per quintal as transport charges. Ministers claim that the policy has been made totally transparent. The farmers would be paid online within 72 hours of sale of their wheat. The government will purchase wheat from the farmers between April 1 to June 15 and all the purchase centres would be linked online.

In the last fiscal, UP government agencies had procured around 40 lakh tonnes of wheat.

The government has also approved a scheme to honour the sugarcane farmers for their record produce. Three cane farmers would get an award of ₹51,000, ₹31,000 and ₹21,000 for best sugarcane produce, while three sugarcane societies would also be awarded at a state-level function to be attended by the Chief Minister.

The government also approved the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Adarsh Nagar Panchayat scheme, in which one panchayat of every district would be developed with a fund up to ₹4 crore. The government will implement the scheme in two years and the funds would be allotted in two installments. The scheme had been announced by the BJP during the assembly polls campaign.

On Friday evening, Yogi held a review meeting of the mining department and took stock of scarcity of building material including sand and morang (coarse sand). In the ongoing budget session of the state legislature law makers, cutting across party lines, had complained about non-availability of building material.

Even ruling party legislators had complained that middlemen were charging exorbitant rates for the sand and coarse sand. This has spiralled into a a big political issue as construction work has come to a standstill, affecting livelihood of lakhs of labourers working in these sites.

Mining minister Archana Pandey said that CM has given 15 days’time to bring the system back to rails.