Adityanath keeps Home, over 3 dozen more depts

Ending days of suspense, hectic activity and intense bargaining, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday allocated portfolios to his cabinet colleagues, keeping over three dozen departments including the Home ministry with himself. The chief minister also kept the Information, Housing and Urban planning, Food and Civil Supplies, Mining, Personnel, Institutional Finance, Estate and several other departments according to the list released by Governor Ram Naik on Wednesday..

Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya has been given the Public Works Department (PWD), Food Processing, Entertainment Tax and Public Enterprises Department. The other Deputy CM, Dinesh Sharma was given Higher and Secondary Education, Science and Technology, Electronics and IT departments. The key Finance portfolio went to Rajesh Agarwal, while Sidhharth Nath Singh has got Medical and Health department.

Among the 22 cabinet ministers, Surya Pratap Shahi got Agriculture and agriculture research, Suresh Kumar Khanna — Urban Development, Parliamentary Affairs, Swami Prasad Maurya — Labour, Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation while Satish Mahana got Industrial Development.

Rita Bahuguna Joshi got Women and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development and Tourism, Dara Singh Chauhan has been given Forest and Environment, Zoological Gardens, Dharampal Singh — Irrigation, SP Singh Baghel — Fisheries, Minor Irrigation and Animal Husbandry while Satyadev Pachauri got Khadi Gramodyog, Silk and Export Promotion.

Cabinet ministers Ramapati Shastri got SC/ST welfare while Jai Prakash Singh got charge of the Excise department. Om Prakash Rajbhar got Backward Castes and Handicap Welfare, Brijesh Pathak - Law and Justice, Political Pension, Renewable Energy, Lakshmi Narain Chowdhury - Milk Development, Religious Endowment Culture, Minority Welfare, Chetan Chauhan - Sports and Youth Welfare, Srikant Sharma - Power, Rajendra Pratap Singh alias Moti Singh - Rural Engineering Department, Mukut Bihari Verma - Cooperative, Ashutosh Tondon - Technical and Medical Education and Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi - Stamp and Court Fees, Registration and Civil Aviation departments.The lone Muslim face in the council of ministers, Mohsin Raza got Science and Technology, Electronics, IT, Muslim Waqf and Haj.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday went into crackdown mode after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sought an action plan for closure of slaughter houses and a "blanket ban" on cow smuggling, as illegal abattoirs and meat shops across the state faced the heat. "The priority of the state government is to close the illegal slaughter houses in the state, and at the same time put a blanket ban on all the mechanised slaughter houses," said Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday directed government officials to stop chewing pan, pan masala etc when in office, after seeing betel-juice stained walls during his first visit to the secretariat annexe building here. "The chief minister visited all the floors of the annexe building and met officials posted there. After detecting betel stains on walls, he asked employees not to consume paan or paan masala during duty hours and ensure cleanliness," Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said.