Yogi Adityanath orders clear guidelines for anti-Romeo squads to avoid instances of moral policing

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday directed the state’s top officials to chalk out clear guidelines for anti-Romeo squads so that there is no “unnecessary harassment” of boys and girls. In a meeting on Friday, he also warned that in case of deaths due to drought and floods anywhere in the state, the concerned department officials will be held responsible. Giving specific instructions, the Chief Minister asked the principal secretary (home) to chalk out clear guidelines for anti-Romeo squads and “ensure there is no unnecessary harassment of boys and girls moving around or sitting at any place”, an official statement said. [caption id=“attachment_3343364” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. PTI[/caption] He also asked for effective steps in cases of acid attacks. In the first meeting with ministers of state and senior officials of departments held by him, the chief minister also stressed on blanket ban on illegal mining saying that there were adverse reports about some districts. He said District Magistrates (DMs) and district police heads will be held directly responsible in case of illegal mining in their districts. Directing the officials to complete floods preparations in a transparent manner before June 15 without involving any middlemen, the chief minister warned that officials of the departments concerned will be held directly responsible for any loss of life due to drought or floods. He sought drafting of proper plans for drought relief especially in Bundelkhand region. The UP chief minister also suggested a Parliament-type security arrangement of Vidhan Bhawan and it was important to see that wrong people were denied entry. Aditya Nath who has termed law and order as the top priority of his government also asked for daily report from all DMs and Superintendents of Police in connection with all these points, the release said. Cautioning that laxity will not be tolerated in implementation of schemes meant for farmers, Yogi asked for preparing a transparent plan for wheat purchase and extended the target of its procurement to 80 lakh metric tonnes from the present 40 lakh metric tonnes which he said was not enough. The new Chief Minister, who has already made his views on punctuality and hygiene clear and said biometric system should be put in place to register presence in offices and CCTV cameras should be installed in rooms. Adityanath, who has ordered closure of illegal slaughter houses, asked officials to act against criminals, smugglers and land mafia in a just and unbiased manner. Discussing the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, the chief minister said people have so far been kept deprived of its benefits because of the uncooperative attitude and directed transferring the scheme to Housing development department from Urban development. He suggested preparing a plan for completing houses under the Kanshi Ram Scheme and allotting them to the homeless in a transparent manner, the release said. He also asked for opening 3,000 shops providing generic medicines at reasonable rates and availability of doctors in government officials. He also directed that a team of officials be sent to Chhattisgarh for studying their wheat procurement policy and implementing their suggestions. The Chief Minister has already issued directives through the chief secretary to cancel the registration of all tainted firms and mafia elements as contractors and instead asked for giving chance to those who can work qualitatively and stressed for lodging of FIRs against the offenders without bowing under any political pressure. Yogi said that soon, the government will fix its target for 100 days and make arrangements for redressing the problems of the people. Taking stock of the ongoing works of the Lucknow metro project, the Chief Minister also asked for giving momentum to the Varanasi and Kanpur projects besides directing preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for metro in Allahabad, Meerut Agra, Gorakhpur and Jhansi and said that his government was committed to start work on them in one year’s time. He reviewed the working of the Cooperative department also and banned political appointments in department of languages.