Yogi Action Plan 2.0

A crackdown on corruption, improving law & order and attracting investment top the chief minister's agenda for the first 100 days of his second term

- Prashant Srivastava

Yogi Adityanath began his second term as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh much the same way as he ended his first. Riding a bulldozer, that is, metaphorically speaking at least. The 'bulldozer baba'image fetched rich returns at the hustings, and the chief minister is determined to carry that impression into his second innings as well-of a tenacious administrator bent on taking down illegal constructions and corruption.

Yogi launched his 'war on corruption within 10 days of taking oath on March 25. Two district magistrates—T.K. Shibu in Sonbhadra and Sunil Kumar in Auraiya—as well as Ghaziabad SSP Pawan Kumar, were suspended for corruption and laxity during poll duty on April 1, April 4, and March 31, respectively.

To send the message that no one involved in crime will be spared, a building allegedly belonging to police inspector Jagat Narayan Singh was razed by the Lucknow Development Authority on April 3. Singh is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi in connection with the murder of Kanpur-based property dealer Manish Gupta. Singh was SHO of Ramgarh station in Gorakhpur when the murder took place there on September 28 last year.

The 'fear of Yogi' also apparently had Gautam Singh, a history-sheeter involved in several cases of kidnapping and extortion, surrendering at the Chapla police station in Gonda on March 15, a few days after the BJP's win in the state. Over two dozen criminals surrendered the same day in Saharanpur too. Liquor smugglers have done so in Deoband and Shamli. In Pratapgarh, a rape accused gave himself up days after he allegedly committed the crime. The police parked a bulldozer outside his house and had threatened to raze it if he didn't surrender.