For Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, it seemed to be an exercise in mending fences with the media with whom he had crossed swords over the recent Durga Nagpal episode.
The chief minister, while addressing a press conference here on Saturday to unveil his government’s agenda for development in 2013-14, was in an unusually jovial mood and even directed most of the questions to the bureaucrats present on the occasion.
“You always tell me that the officers do not listen to you. I have brought all of them here with me to take your questions and you can ask them as many as you want,” he said
The first one to take the questions was Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Jawed Usmani who said, “UP is like a big aircraft which cannot be turned around quickly. It requires mid-term sustained efforts. I placate, scold, threaten and do whatever else is required to make my officers improve their work culture.”
The chief secretary said that he regularly monitored the progress of projects and used the legendary formula of “saam, daam, dand, bhed” (by hook or by crook) to improve the work culture.
Meanwhile, the chief minister listed the achievements of his government and said that there had been a record development in the past year-and-a-half.
“We have ensured that there is no shortage of seeds and fertilisers for farmers and we can also ensured payment of cane duties,” he said and added that the land for the proposed information technology city had been provided and efforts are on to solve the power crisis by increasing dependence of solar energy.
The CM also referred to the steps taken by his government like the Samajwadi Ambulance Sewa, loan waiver of farmers through the Land Development Bank, laptop distribution scheme, the unemployment allowance scheme and women power line. Replying to a question, Mr Akhilesh Yadav said that schemes like laptop distribution would continue and for this, `2,700 crores has been earmarked in the state budget.