Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth entered his official residence at 5, Kalidas Marg in Lucknow on Monday, after a purification ceremony -- in true Hindu style. The rudrabhishek and a series of other havans lasted for about three hours.
Seven priests from the Gorakhnath temple, of which the Chief Minister himself is the head priest, purified the residence with 11 litres of cow milk brought from his own gaushala in his hometown Gorakhpur. Amidst chanting of matras, the priests inscribed swastik signs on the main gate, which bears the nameplate of Aditya Nath Yogi. Mahant was dropped from the plaque. An urdu plaque of the CM's residence was removed.
Each and every room of the official residence was purified with cow milk mixed with water from river Ganga. The priests also checked the official residence from a vaastu point of view and directed the caretakers to effect minor changes. It is for the first time that the CM's official residence is being purified with chanting of vedic mantras.
To be fair, it was not all priests and mantras. The firebrand saffron monk held a series of meetings with the bureaucracy and directed them to study the 30-page BJP manifesto in 24 hours and start its implementation to speed up development.
The first meeting was with Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar. He was asked to form a committee to study the waiver of farmers' debt, payment of dues to sugarcane farmers, and take action against illegal slaughter houses.
It was the turn of the Principal Secretary and the Secretaries next. They were directed to declare details of their incomes, and movable and immovable assets within 15 days. Interestingly, all these officers are already bound to submit their income details every year to the government under the service rules. Adithyanath then gave them the next job brief: prepare a 100-day road map for the overall development of the state.
The Director General of Police (DGP) was summoned twice to ensure a tight grip on the law-and-order situation. Adityanath was annoyed over the murder of Mohammed Shami, a Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) leader in Allahabad, and the murder of three persons in Auraiyya district in the last 24 hours. The DGP was asked to keep crime under check and issued a stern instruction that police recruitment should be based on merit and not on casteist and religious considerations.
He later held a meeting at the Secretriat with the District Magistrates and SSPs and directed them to start implementing the party's manifesto. His deputies – Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dr Dinesh Sharma – were also present.
The Chief Minister's emphasis was on improving law-and-order situation, security to women, employment opportunities for youth and problems faced by farmers.
He assured the state bureaucracy of minimum political intervention and allayed fears of frequent transfers. The new CM also directed all department heads to start the budgetary exercise of giving the final shape to his maiden budget, which is likely to presented after June 15.
Though the purification went on for three hours, it would be a while before Adityanath starts staying in his official residence. The priests have advised him to shift during an auspicious day during Navaratri as March is an inauspicious month. For the past two days, he has been staying in a suite at a VVIP guest house. Adityanath wants to construct a temple inside the CM's residence but caretakers are tightlipped on it.
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