Workaholic Adityanath keeps bureaucracy, press on toes

Lucknow: There were not many takers when new Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath warned that he was a workaholic and only those who can work 18-20 hours a day can keep pace with him.

Less than a month hence, the state’s elite bureaucracy has learnt the lesson the hard way that this time round, they can even be asked to report in the dead of night, literally. Soon after assuming charge, Adityanath had given a stern message to officials that those who were not prepared to work 18-20 hours a day were free to make way.

 “The state government will not tolerate any laxity in implementation of its schemes. Officers willing to work 18-20 hours a day can continue with the government or else, they are free to leave,” he had declared on his home turf of Gorakhpur. “I am a workaholic and the bureaucrats will have to deliver too.

 Those ready to work hard should continue and the non-performers should leave,” he had said clearly. But many had taken it as a rhetoric as the state bureaucracy was not used to such a style of functioning. Adityanath, who took over the reins of the state on March 19, got cracking in no time and went on a reviewing spree of the working of various key departments.

He has been taking up four to six departments a day during meetings which often start around 6 pm. Officials, on the condition of anonymity, say the idea is that after the routine works of the day, the meetings would start in the evening, so that the work is not disturbed. (PTI)