8 things Yogi Adityanath should do for UP, with no excuses

Even before Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, the #AdarshLiberal lobby came down on him like a tonne of bricks. But at the end of the day he is a five-time Lok Sabha MP who is very active in Parliament and hence has a right to any constitutional post that the country has to offer.

We have to judge him by his deeds and results once he takes over as CM and there are a slew of things that Uttar Pradesh needs desperately done. Here are eight things he can do for UP...

1) Sort out the law and order issue once and for all

UP always had a law and order problem which became abysmal when Mulayam Singh Yadav became CM in 2003. His Goonda Raj was rivalled only by Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Jungle Raj. Mayawati put the lid on the bottle a bit but couldn’t find a permanent solution.

Akhilesh was as big a disaster as his father and crime returned with a bang. Yogi has no excuses. He has 325 MLAs so it’s a highly stable government. He can take support from the Centre as and when required.

He will have to hire a no-nonsense home minister who will be able to pull up the police force which has got used to seeing goondas get away at the behest of politicians. That is one thing he will have to deliver in 2017 itself, or the problem will get more and more difficult as the term progresses.

2) Finally clean the Ganga

You could say something like a rare planetary alignment has taken place and it’s now or never for the cleaning of the sacred Ganga river. The state has 325 NDA MLAs and 75 NDA MPs. The Prime Minister is a staunch Hindu elected from Varanasi.

Add to the above we have a Yogi as CM, who considers the Ganga sacred, and you have no excuses. Yogi has all the resources, support and motivation to clean the Ganga. He has to find a permanent solution to the problem and if he doesn’t do so then he has exactly zero excuses.

3) Stick to the basics: BSP

Bijli (electricity), sadak (road), pani (water) is the universal mantra for success and it should be no different for UP. That is one of the reasons why BJP is winning big election after election. 

Long back, the term BiMaRU was coined to signify the sick states of India. Since then Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have raced ahead. Then Nitish Kumar’s good work was undone when he joined hands with Lalu.

UP has the potential to really break free and is in such an abysmal condition that even an above average effort will make it zoom ahead. Yogi has been an MP active in Parliament and he can use his personal equation with all central ministers to get the work done in each and every field.

As it is, he will get full backing from Narendra Modi if he comes out with a really strong development agenda.

4) Big ticket projects

That’s another thing Yogi can push. It’s not just a little thing. In terms of area UP is one of the largest states in India while it is still backward and hence the condition is ripe for mega projects. Again, Yogi can get full backing from the Centre.

Whether it’s related to tourism or agriculture or a proposed huge nuclear plant, UP is a clean slate for Yogi to write on. Decades back, politicians dreamed up of Noida and today it is a huge deal. We need dozens of Noidas peppered all over UP.

5) Revamp government schools and primary education

In many cities the middle class have switched fully to private schools. That way UP is heavily dependent on government schools and the state of primary education there is in shambles.

From the quality of primary school teachers to lack of school toilets to infrastructure woes, Yogi sure has his work cut out in UP.

6) Focus on small industries too

Agriculture. handloom. handicrafts. river fishing. livestock rearing. These are the little things that power the economy of Uttar Pradesh. Many humble citizens depend on all of these for their livelihood. UP has a unique culture and Yogi understands that quite well. Now all he has to do is convert that into action.

7) Committee for trifurcating the state

If UP was a separate country then it would the sixth most populous in the world. Is it time to split it into smaller units for better administration? Mayawati had floated the idea in 2012, but it got lost in her electoral loss.

While there’s no chance the BJP will do anything till the 2019 general elections, Yogi can explore the feasibility of this idea and if it makes sense, then implement it towards the end of his term.

8) Not make controversial statements and keep the term riot free

Yogi has always been in the news for making controversial statements and he should now cut down on that. He should focus on action and not words, he has a 325-MLA stable government and he doesn’t have to worry about anything else.

His detractors will have the knives out so he has to ensure that apart from law and order as mentioned above, there should be no major riots or it will be all blamed on him no matter what the origin of the violence.

There was a spike in communal tension after Akhilesh Yadav became CM in 2012, and it’s time that it too came down.

Also read: What Modi, Sangh plan to achieve with Yogi Adityanath as CM of Uttar Pradesh