Sitting Over Files for Days, How Laid-back UP Babus Were Shaken Up by a 'Workaholic' Chief Minister

Gorakhpur/Lucknow: The long hours put in by the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and meetings convened till late into the night has put the bureaucrats in UP on their toes. In fact, the new work culture and accountability has many laid-back bureaucrats silently resenting these late night meetings.

Matters are worse for those in the Chief Ministers office and his close team, as they have to start their day very early in the morning and end around midnight.

Very soon into his tenure as Chief Minister of the most populous state in the country, Yogi Adityanath realised that most officials have a habit of arranging one meeting after another rather than disposing files and meeting people who have a problem.

This was more of a ploy to cosily pass the day and escape the grind of taking tough decisions and identify those indulging in malpractices.

CM Yogi in an interaction with News18 said he soon realised that matters became worse when bureaucrats were called by him for meetings. “That became an excuse for them to waste the entire day under the excuse of preparing for the CM’s meeting,” Yogi said, while discussing the work of his government which completes its two-and-half year tenure.

Also a whole retinue of officers right from the top to bottom used to arrive for the CM’s review meetings, which led to the entire department coming to a standstill. “I have now issued orders that only the Principal Secretary or the department head, who has been called for the meeting comes to attend it, and not a whole bunch of them. This ensures that the Principal Secretary comes well prepared with all the facts rather than turn to his deputies for every little query. It also ensures that other officers are free to dispose the regular work of the day,” Yogi told News18, at the Gorakshpeeth Dham.

It is changes like these that have ushered in a new result oriented work culture in the state and shaken bureaucrats out of their comfort zone. “Yogi ji is a workaholic, spending nearly 17 hours a day on official duties. He ensures that the entire bureaucracy is also putting in more time and effort to meet the objectives laid down by him. We are worse off than our colleagues as we have to be there right from early morning hours when he starts his day and at times stay back till about midnight,” said a key bureaucrat posted in the CM’s office, with half a smile.