##PMO India : Report Card. ("Mamata") : She is actually admitting that there are or could be Lacs and Lacs of Patients in West Bengal. Something which she has been hiding all the time. Lakhs & Lakhs can not be quarantined by the WB govt? The WB CM herself says so! So finally the truth is out in open? Is WB on the verge to explode or has already exploded?
==================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The state has chosen a model to ascertain Covid-19 deaths that is so unique it can be patented as the Bengal Covid-19 tracking/tackling model.
The visuals that emerged from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video conference with chief ministers today show everyone looking at their respective screen. This includes West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who too was spotted looking at the screen – her phone screen. The big question about what could she be looking at on her phone has some small (probable) answers – the state’s preparedness to deal with the coronavirus, her own paintings or just how many days are left for state elections.
*West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fiddles with her phone as PM Narendra Modi discusses coronavirus with state CMs. (Photo: TV grab)
West Bengal is scheduled to go for state elections in 2021. We live in times where all schedules have been thrown to the wind for those who have realised the magnitude of what we are facing.
Those who haven’t realised it are the ones who in history will be remembered for compounding the tragedy. Who will remain to read that history tomorrow depends on how responsibly we behave today.
On that scale of responsible behaviour, Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee is competing hard to share a spot down below with China’s Xi Jinping. From hiding data to opening businesses at whim, from not cooperating with the Centre to staying glued to her phone in a meeting with the PM and other CMs, Didi is presenting a model of how not to handle corona. Or, like they say in Bengal, corona ebhabe handle corona.
The state has chosen a model to ascertain Covid-19 deaths that is so unique it can be patented as the Bengal Covid-19 tracking/tackling model. Bengal tried to suppress death figures first. Then when it found a central team ready to unmask its lies, the state decided to opt for a half-truth.
Hours after the central government wrote to the state chief secretary asking for “case records” of all coronavirus-linked fatalities that had been attributed to other causes by an expert panel constituted by the Mamata Banerjee government, the state revised its death toll by three times on April 24.
Bengal said 57 Covid-19 patients had died in the state, but added a rider that would send the minds of the sharpest scientists into a tizzy - 39 of these had succumbed to “comorbid conditions”.
Coronavirus infection, the government added, was “incidental” in their death. This basically meant that people died and the state, which is claiming a shortage of testing kits, decided to test the dead bodies for coronavirus and found that the virus had reached them. The virus was just present there, but stands absolved of killing the body hosting it. This clean chit for the virus is cleaner than the one China and the World Health Organisation gave it.
West Bengal reported its first case on March 17. This was much before cases related to Tablighi Jamaat started emerging from many Indian states. Around 300 people who were part of the gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz returned to Bengal. Most of them have been quarantined at the Haj House in New Town. There is zero transparency on how the state is tackling (if at all it is) those cases.
All states where the Jamaat spreaders went, saw a sudden jump in numbers. But news is good news. The spike can be contained if the spike is ascertained. Like it could have happened for China, like it can still happen for West Bengal if Mamata could leave her phone aside and tell us the truth.
But Mamata Banerjee is looking for good PR instead of good governance. She summoned Prashant Kishor right before the Centre made it clear it was going to intervene in her state.
*What Prashant Kishor is yet to clarify is how he reached Kolkata to meet Mamata Banerjee. (Photo: Reuters)
Kishor’s organisation Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), a political advocacy group, is currently handling the re-election campaign of Trinamool Congress for the 2021 Assembly polls to aid Banerjee’s bid for a third consecutive term.
The whole exercise ended in one big PR disaster. First, news emerged that Kishor had reached Kolkata in a cargo plane. CCTV cameras were scanned for visuals that could show Kishor packing himself in along with the plane’s cargo. None was found. Kishor challenged rivals - his and Mamata’s - for proof. Then he was asked about how he reached Bengal. He answered that by denying to comment – “no comments”. Whatever way he chose to reach Banerjee, including a possible parachute drop, stands in defiance of the lockdown norms.
If Banerjee trusts Kishor for PR, she implicitly trusts BR Satpathy to certify all deaths. The five-member expert committee that is certifying all deaths due to Covid-19 virus, is headed by BR Satpathy. The former director of Health Services is very close to Banerjee.
This committee has been tasked with studying treatment histories, lab investigation reports, death certificates and other documents to pronounce the final word on whether the death of a Covid-19-positive patient can be ruled “due to Covid-19”.
The rest of the world, we believe with the exception of China, has a system where the doctor issues a death certificate. This certificate says what killed the person. In Banerjee’s Bengal, Satpathy’s committee is doing that.
The committee itself came into existence on April 3. Only three deaths had been reported in the state till then. Remember, the first case was reported on March 17. In the three weeks after its formation, the death figures were updated only six times. The committee is said to meet twice a week to determine the cause of death. This, at a time when people are following Covid-19 trackers on real-time basis for real-time data.
When the Communist rule ended in Bengal, after 34 years of uninterrupted reign, and Banerjee took over as the Chief Minister, it was thought change has arrived. She fought her entire battle on that one word: Poriborton. Change. Bengal, after three and a half decades of the Communist rule, was thirsty for change. This Poriborton came in in 2011 when Mamata stormed Writers'. But the more things changed, the more they remained the same because Banerjee began getting on board Communist party cadres in such high numbers that her TMC workers started expressing open dissent. Banerjee’s rise to power was one that had seen violence first-hand. She was also learning from (and emulating) the Communist regime what she was fighting against.
Suppression of truth, muzzling of dissent and disregard for order have continued under Banerjee. She didn’t just wait for Communist cadres to walk up to her seeking induction, she also poached them. They helped spread political violence, rig elections and silence opposition.
The 2018 Panchayat elections were so violent that on one-third seats, Banerjee’s men won unopposed.
Coronavirus doesn’t understand violence. It doesn’t understand or allow room for old-style politics. This new-age problem demands new answers. Banerjee’s phone screen doesn’t seem to have them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lakhs & Lakhs can not be quarantined by the WB govt? The WB CM herself says so!
So finally the truth is out in open?
Is WB on the verge to explode or has already exploded?
==================================================
*Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath offers prayers at a temple in Ayodhya on Wednesday. | Photo: ANI
--------------------------------------------------
When Yogi Adityanath’s father died last week, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister was in a meeting with officials over Covid-19. The next day’s newspapers were full of vivid details about how he, with moist eyes, continued the meeting, and how he wore the mask the entire day, ostensibly to hide his tears.
He later wrote a letter to his grieving mother, informing her that he had wanted to see his father in his “last moments” but couldn’t because of his “kartavyabodh”, or sense of duty, to the 23 crore people of Uttar Pradesh. It’s not known when the letter reached the mother, but Lucknow media got to see it in no time.
In the letter, the CM said he wouldn’t be able to attend the funeral of his “purvashram ke janmadata”, or father of the ‘former world’ – before he took sanyas — for the success of the lockdown.
The past week has seen reels of paper being written on his transformation from Ajay Singh Bisht, who left home in 1992 at the age of 20, into Yogi Adityanath, the ‘saint’ who forsook his family to work for the people. A TV channel interviewed his elder sister who sells flowers and runs a dhaba to earn her livelihood in a nondescript Uttarakhand village.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The chief minister’s sacrifice and his asceticism have captured popular imagination, especially when panic-stricken people are clutching at every straw of hope in their fight against the coronavirus. The common refrain in UP now is that CM Adityanath kept the people above his family, their interests above his personal loss. Even his critics are guarded now. “There was nothing to talk about his first three years in office, except how he tried to polarise the people along communal lines. But his Covid-19 management and then this decision to not attend his father’s funeral have gone down well with the people,” a friend, a keen political observer, told me over the phone.
My colleague in Lucknow, Prashant Srivastava, concurred: “The last one month has changed his entire three years’ record in office. People are calling me to say, which CM would ignore such a tragedy to do his duty.”
So now, no more questions are being raised about low testing — 61,799 in a population of 23 crore, as on Sunday. It was much worse a week before that. Nobody is even asking how the so-called Agra model of containment failed so soon.
Yogi Adityanath skipping his father’s funeral has suddenly become the biggest testimony to his dedication to work and administrative efficiency.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Yogi Adityanath’s duty-before-the-family decision has propelled him into the league of leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi who left their families behind to devote their lives to the uplift of the people. From Day 1 in office, in fact, the UP chief minister has been modelling himself on Modi. As I wrote in Hindustan Times in March 2017, right after Yogi took oath, he started emulating Modi’s initiatives at the Centre in Lucknow: Biometric attendance in office; ministers to declare their assets; administration of swachhata (sanitation) oath to his officials; PowerPoint presentations; and, a 100-day agenda.
The CM made his ministers sit through hours of departmental presentations every day. When a minister wanted to know why he should attend all presentations, the chief minister reportedly quipped: “The departments can change, too.” In subsequent months and years, the ministers learnt to stay in the background–much like those at the Centre–as Yogi took the role of a Super CM with centralised command and control system.
The UP CM got his officials to look at the schemes and programmes implemented in Gujarat under former chief minister Narendra Modi. On the lines of Vibrant Gujarat summits, UP also organised an investor summit in 2018, although there are many questions about its achievements. If Modi wants to make India a $5 trillion economy, Yogi set the target of $1 trillion for UP. To this end, a Global Investors’ Summit was planned in February 2020, which has now been deferred to October-November.
In 2013, a media report claiming that the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had visited flood-hit Uttarakhand and rescued 15,000 Gujaratis had created a buzz across India, first because of the tall claim in the report and then because of its rebuttal.
Seven years later, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister sent 300 buses to Kota in Rajasthan to evacuate thousands of stranded students from the state. A vernacular paper has called the CM “Hanuman” for this rescue act.
Yogi is following Modi’s model even in Covid-19 management. The Modi government set up 11 empowered committees comprising bureaucrats and two groups of ministers. Yogi has set up a ‘Team-11’, comprising senior bureaucrats, and 11 committees headed by ministers. Like Modi, the UP CM is also being projected as a tough administrator. In a leaked video, he was seen shouting at Gautam Budhha Nagar DM — “ye bakwas band karo (stop this nonsense)”— before he shunted him out for his alleged failure to contain the spread of Covid-19.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Modi picked him up as chief minister, it was clear he had the backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Yogi Adityanath ticked all the boxes. He was a seer of the influential Nath tradition, who was known for making incendiary speeches. The role of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, founded by him, often came into question in connection with communal clashes in and around Gorakhpur. He was a firebrand Hindutva proponent who allegedly said in a video clip (from his 2007 Azamgarh speech) that if one Hindu girl was converted, “we will also…100 Muslim girls” and “if they kill one Hindu, we will also…100….” Adityanath had then termed it a cut-and-paste job.
Thanks to his rabble-rousing speeches, he was soon to become one of the national campaigners of the BJP, who was drafted in to address public meetings across the country. After becoming the chief minister, he set up an anti-Romeo Squad against alleged love jihad, went after slaughter houses, defended police encounters and action against anti-CAA protesters.
He is well on his way to becoming another Hindu Hriday Samrat, who didn’t shy away from attending the ceremony to shift the Ram Lalla idol from the Ayodhya temple site despite social distancing norms being in place.
Trust Yogi to build on his newly crafted image of an honest, committed and no-nonsense administrator whose only family are the 23 crore people of Uttar Pradesh — much like Modi is to the entire country. The CM’s image as a Hindu Hriday Samrat is likely to get a boost ahead of the 2022 UP assembly elections when a grand temple is inaugurated in Ayodhya.
With an effete opposition that is content with Twitter politics, he may well be on his way to a second term in office in 2022. If that happens, he would have the best credentials in the BJP to aspire for the top job in the country whenever Modi decides to hang up his boots.
==========================================
A health department official said the number of Covid-19 cases rose to 1,507 in Uttar Pradesh Thursday as 58 more people tested positive for the infection.
*Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with police and administration officials at his residence Tuesday (representational image) | Photo: UP Information & Public Relations Department
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday ordered senior administrative and health officers to camp in all districts that have reported more than 20 coronavirus cases to aggressively implement government’s containment measures there.
Additional Chief Secretary, Information, Awanish Awasthi told reporters here that the decision was taken after the chief minister held a meeting to review the coronavirus situation in the state.
He has directed to post senior administrative and health officers in each district with 20 or more coronavirus cases,” Awasthi said.
“There are 15 such districts in the state. As officers are already there in Gautam Buddh Nagar, in the rest 14, they will be sent. These officers will have to camp there for a week and oversee the implementation of lockdown and other health-related issues,” he added.
The CM, he said, also directed to ensure that there is no misuse of vehicles being used to transport essential goods.
“Such vehicles should be run only with driver and helper. If anyone is found carrying passengers or misusing it, the vehicle will be seized. This is a strict warning for drivers,” Awasthi said.
A health department official said the number of COVID-19 cases rose to 1,507 in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday as 58 more people tested positive for the infection.
Among the worst-hit districts as on Wednesday are: Agra, Lucknow, Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Raebareli, Bijnore, Shamli, Amroha.
Awasthi said that a record volume of ration has been distributed in the state through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Currently, 53,000 fertilizer outlets, 33,000 pesticide outlets and 36,000 seed outlets are operating in the state to facilitate agricultural activities, he said
About online teaching in higher education institutions, he said till now 93,652 e-contents have been uploaded by universities and institutions and 6.8 lakh students are taking online classes.
He also said that Rs 16,413 crore have been paid to cane farmers in the state.
===========================================
Pool testing, which reduces the number of test kits used, is currently being conducted in Lucknow, Meerut and Etawah.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said pool testing should be encouraged in the state to ensure that coronavirus is contained in the hotspots and containment zones.
At present, pool testing of coronavirus samples is being conducted in Lucknow, Meerut and Etawah.
Pooling of samples involves testing them in batches and when pooled sample tests positive, then individual samples are assessed. Pool testing reduces the number of test kits used, therefore, increases testing capacity.
“For prevention of COVID-19, pool testing should be encouraged, as through pool testing more people can be tested, and thereby COVID-19 could be effectively controlled,” Adityanath said while chairing a meeting of senior UP government officials at his residence here.
He said it is very important for medical personnel to take all precautions while treating patients infected with coronavirus.
“Hence, the COVID-19 hospitals should have an adequate number of PPE kits and N-95 masks. The dedicated COVID-19 teams should be constantly monitored. The doctors, nurses, para-medical and other staff must be saved from infection at every cost,” the chief minister said.
Adityanath said the state government has earmarked hospitals for dedicated treatment of COVID-19 patients.
He also said that planning should be done to expand plasma therapy for treatment of COVID-19 patients in the state, as it has given good results.
The chief minister said the people of Uttar Pradesh who are stranded in other states and have completed their quarantine period will be brought back in a phased manner.
Adityanath directed the chief secretary, the principal secretary (medical and health) and the director general of police to seek feedback from nodal officers posted in 19 sensitive districts to effectively implement containment measures in view of the rising number of cases.
“Social distancing must be maintained in the industrial units, which have been allowed to operate. Steps should be taken to ensure that guidelines of the health department should be strictly adhered to in these industrial units. The supply chain is working properly, and it should be ensured that it works like this,” Adityanath said, adding that health check-up of people engaged in home delivery should be done continuously.
Instructions were also issued to regularly sanitise the shelter homes in the state, a statement issued by UP government said.
The chief minister asked the additional chief secretary (revenue) to do geo-tagging of shelter homes and details of the people kept there in quarantine should be compiled, and they should be linked to the Aarogya Setu app.
“Patrolling should be increased and no permission should be granted till June 30 for holding any public programme. Social media should be monitored,” he said.
Adityanath also laid stress on using RuPay cards for doing transactions.
According to the Union Health Ministry, there are 1,793 COVID-19 cases in the state and 27 people have lost their lives due to the disease.
===============================================
JAY HIND
JAI BHARATHAM
VANDHE MATHARAM
===================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#OPINION : 28/04/2020 : 2142.
#1.Fear is growing. West Bengal could soon be India’s own China : 27-04-2020 : dailyO : Media Report
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The state has chosen a model to ascertain Covid-19 deaths that is so unique it can be patented as the Bengal Covid-19 tracking/tackling model.
The visuals that emerged from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video conference with chief ministers today show everyone looking at their respective screen. This includes West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who too was spotted looking at the screen – her phone screen. The big question about what could she be looking at on her phone has some small (probable) answers – the state’s preparedness to deal with the coronavirus, her own paintings or just how many days are left for state elections.
West Bengal is scheduled to go for state elections in 2021. We live in times where all schedules have been thrown to the wind for those who have realised the magnitude of what we are facing.
Those who haven’t realised it are the ones who in history will be remembered for compounding the tragedy. Who will remain to read that history tomorrow depends on how responsibly we behave today.
On that scale of responsible behaviour, Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee is competing hard to share a spot down below with China’s Xi Jinping. From hiding data to opening businesses at whim, from not cooperating with the Centre to staying glued to her phone in a meeting with the PM and other CMs, Didi is presenting a model of how not to handle corona. Or, like they say in Bengal, corona ebhabe handle corona.
The state has chosen a model to ascertain Covid-19 deaths that is so unique it can be patented as the Bengal Covid-19 tracking/tackling model. Bengal tried to suppress death figures first. Then when it found a central team ready to unmask its lies, the state decided to opt for a half-truth.
Hours after the central government wrote to the state chief secretary asking for “case records” of all coronavirus-linked fatalities that had been attributed to other causes by an expert panel constituted by the Mamata Banerjee government, the state revised its death toll by three times on April 24.
Bengal said 57 Covid-19 patients had died in the state, but added a rider that would send the minds of the sharpest scientists into a tizzy - 39 of these had succumbed to “comorbid conditions”.
Coronavirus infection, the government added, was “incidental” in their death. This basically meant that people died and the state, which is claiming a shortage of testing kits, decided to test the dead bodies for coronavirus and found that the virus had reached them. The virus was just present there, but stands absolved of killing the body hosting it. This clean chit for the virus is cleaner than the one China and the World Health Organisation gave it.
West Bengal reported its first case on March 17. This was much before cases related to Tablighi Jamaat started emerging from many Indian states. Around 300 people who were part of the gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz returned to Bengal. Most of them have been quarantined at the Haj House in New Town. There is zero transparency on how the state is tackling (if at all it is) those cases.
All states where the Jamaat spreaders went, saw a sudden jump in numbers. But news is good news. The spike can be contained if the spike is ascertained. Like it could have happened for China, like it can still happen for West Bengal if Mamata could leave her phone aside and tell us the truth.
But Mamata Banerjee is looking for good PR instead of good governance. She summoned Prashant Kishor right before the Centre made it clear it was going to intervene in her state.
Kishor’s organisation Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), a political advocacy group, is currently handling the re-election campaign of Trinamool Congress for the 2021 Assembly polls to aid Banerjee’s bid for a third consecutive term.
The whole exercise ended in one big PR disaster. First, news emerged that Kishor had reached Kolkata in a cargo plane. CCTV cameras were scanned for visuals that could show Kishor packing himself in along with the plane’s cargo. None was found. Kishor challenged rivals - his and Mamata’s - for proof. Then he was asked about how he reached Bengal. He answered that by denying to comment – “no comments”. Whatever way he chose to reach Banerjee, including a possible parachute drop, stands in defiance of the lockdown norms.
If Banerjee trusts Kishor for PR, she implicitly trusts BR Satpathy to certify all deaths. The five-member expert committee that is certifying all deaths due to Covid-19 virus, is headed by BR Satpathy. The former director of Health Services is very close to Banerjee.
This committee has been tasked with studying treatment histories, lab investigation reports, death certificates and other documents to pronounce the final word on whether the death of a Covid-19-positive patient can be ruled “due to Covid-19”.
The rest of the world, we believe with the exception of China, has a system where the doctor issues a death certificate. This certificate says what killed the person. In Banerjee’s Bengal, Satpathy’s committee is doing that.
The committee itself came into existence on April 3. Only three deaths had been reported in the state till then. Remember, the first case was reported on March 17. In the three weeks after its formation, the death figures were updated only six times. The committee is said to meet twice a week to determine the cause of death. This, at a time when people are following Covid-19 trackers on real-time basis for real-time data.
When the Communist rule ended in Bengal, after 34 years of uninterrupted reign, and Banerjee took over as the Chief Minister, it was thought change has arrived. She fought her entire battle on that one word: Poriborton. Change. Bengal, after three and a half decades of the Communist rule, was thirsty for change. This Poriborton came in in 2011 when Mamata stormed Writers'. But the more things changed, the more they remained the same because Banerjee began getting on board Communist party cadres in such high numbers that her TMC workers started expressing open dissent. Banerjee’s rise to power was one that had seen violence first-hand. She was also learning from (and emulating) the Communist regime what she was fighting against.
Suppression of truth, muzzling of dissent and disregard for order have continued under Banerjee. She didn’t just wait for Communist cadres to walk up to her seeking induction, she also poached them. They helped spread political violence, rig elections and silence opposition.
The 2018 Panchayat elections were so violent that on one-third seats, Banerjee’s men won unopposed.
Coronavirus doesn’t understand violence. It doesn’t understand or allow room for old-style politics. This new-age problem demands new answers. Banerjee’s phone screen doesn’t seem to have them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
##PMO India : Report Card. ("Mamata") :
She is actually admitting that there are or could be Lacs and Lacs of Patients in West Bengal. Something which she has been hiding all the time.Lakhs & Lakhs can not be quarantined by the WB govt? The WB CM herself says so!
So finally the truth is out in open?
Is WB on the verge to explode or has already exploded?
==================================================
NOTE :# 1.UP CM Adityanath emerges as Modi’s nearest political clone, another potential successor D.K. SINGH 27 April, 2020 8:35 am IST The Print.
DK.Singh
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------##UP chief minister Adityanath skipping his father’s funeral is being projected as the biggest testimony to his dedication to work and administrative efficiency.
--------------------------------------------------
When Yogi Adityanath’s father died last week, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister was in a meeting with officials over Covid-19. The next day’s newspapers were full of vivid details about how he, with moist eyes, continued the meeting, and how he wore the mask the entire day, ostensibly to hide his tears.
He later wrote a letter to his grieving mother, informing her that he had wanted to see his father in his “last moments” but couldn’t because of his “kartavyabodh”, or sense of duty, to the 23 crore people of Uttar Pradesh. It’s not known when the letter reached the mother, but Lucknow media got to see it in no time.
In the letter, the CM said he wouldn’t be able to attend the funeral of his “purvashram ke janmadata”, or father of the ‘former world’ – before he took sanyas — for the success of the lockdown.
The past week has seen reels of paper being written on his transformation from Ajay Singh Bisht, who left home in 1992 at the age of 20, into Yogi Adityanath, the ‘saint’ who forsook his family to work for the people. A TV channel interviewed his elder sister who sells flowers and runs a dhaba to earn her livelihood in a nondescript Uttarakhand village.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
###Yogi administration: Three years vs one month :
----------------------------------------------------------------The chief minister’s sacrifice and his asceticism have captured popular imagination, especially when panic-stricken people are clutching at every straw of hope in their fight against the coronavirus. The common refrain in UP now is that CM Adityanath kept the people above his family, their interests above his personal loss. Even his critics are guarded now. “There was nothing to talk about his first three years in office, except how he tried to polarise the people along communal lines. But his Covid-19 management and then this decision to not attend his father’s funeral have gone down well with the people,” a friend, a keen political observer, told me over the phone.
My colleague in Lucknow, Prashant Srivastava, concurred: “The last one month has changed his entire three years’ record in office. People are calling me to say, which CM would ignore such a tragedy to do his duty.”
So now, no more questions are being raised about low testing — 61,799 in a population of 23 crore, as on Sunday. It was much worse a week before that. Nobody is even asking how the so-called Agra model of containment failed so soon.
Yogi Adityanath skipping his father’s funeral has suddenly become the biggest testimony to his dedication to work and administrative efficiency.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
####How Yogi models himself on Modi :
-----------------------------------------------------------------Yogi Adityanath’s duty-before-the-family decision has propelled him into the league of leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi who left their families behind to devote their lives to the uplift of the people. From Day 1 in office, in fact, the UP chief minister has been modelling himself on Modi. As I wrote in Hindustan Times in March 2017, right after Yogi took oath, he started emulating Modi’s initiatives at the Centre in Lucknow: Biometric attendance in office; ministers to declare their assets; administration of swachhata (sanitation) oath to his officials; PowerPoint presentations; and, a 100-day agenda.
The CM made his ministers sit through hours of departmental presentations every day. When a minister wanted to know why he should attend all presentations, the chief minister reportedly quipped: “The departments can change, too.” In subsequent months and years, the ministers learnt to stay in the background–much like those at the Centre–as Yogi took the role of a Super CM with centralised command and control system.
The UP CM got his officials to look at the schemes and programmes implemented in Gujarat under former chief minister Narendra Modi. On the lines of Vibrant Gujarat summits, UP also organised an investor summit in 2018, although there are many questions about its achievements. If Modi wants to make India a $5 trillion economy, Yogi set the target of $1 trillion for UP. To this end, a Global Investors’ Summit was planned in February 2020, which has now been deferred to October-November.
In 2013, a media report claiming that the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had visited flood-hit Uttarakhand and rescued 15,000 Gujaratis had created a buzz across India, first because of the tall claim in the report and then because of its rebuttal.
Seven years later, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister sent 300 buses to Kota in Rajasthan to evacuate thousands of stranded students from the state. A vernacular paper has called the CM “Hanuman” for this rescue act.
Yogi is following Modi’s model even in Covid-19 management. The Modi government set up 11 empowered committees comprising bureaucrats and two groups of ministers. Yogi has set up a ‘Team-11’, comprising senior bureaucrats, and 11 committees headed by ministers. Like Modi, the UP CM is also being projected as a tough administrator. In a leaked video, he was seen shouting at Gautam Budhha Nagar DM — “ye bakwas band karo (stop this nonsense)”— before he shunted him out for his alleged failure to contain the spread of Covid-19.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#####Potential successor to Modi? :
-----------------------------------------------------------------When Modi picked him up as chief minister, it was clear he had the backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Yogi Adityanath ticked all the boxes. He was a seer of the influential Nath tradition, who was known for making incendiary speeches. The role of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, founded by him, often came into question in connection with communal clashes in and around Gorakhpur. He was a firebrand Hindutva proponent who allegedly said in a video clip (from his 2007 Azamgarh speech) that if one Hindu girl was converted, “we will also…100 Muslim girls” and “if they kill one Hindu, we will also…100….” Adityanath had then termed it a cut-and-paste job.
Thanks to his rabble-rousing speeches, he was soon to become one of the national campaigners of the BJP, who was drafted in to address public meetings across the country. After becoming the chief minister, he set up an anti-Romeo Squad against alleged love jihad, went after slaughter houses, defended police encounters and action against anti-CAA protesters.
He is well on his way to becoming another Hindu Hriday Samrat, who didn’t shy away from attending the ceremony to shift the Ram Lalla idol from the Ayodhya temple site despite social distancing norms being in place.
Trust Yogi to build on his newly crafted image of an honest, committed and no-nonsense administrator whose only family are the 23 crore people of Uttar Pradesh — much like Modi is to the entire country. The CM’s image as a Hindu Hriday Samrat is likely to get a boost ahead of the 2022 UP assembly elections when a grand temple is inaugurated in Ayodhya.
With an effete opposition that is content with Twitter politics, he may well be on his way to a second term in office in 2022. If that happens, he would have the best credentials in the BJP to aspire for the top job in the country whenever Modi decides to hang up his boots.
==========================================
NOTE :##2. UP CM Yogi asks senior officers to camp in worst-hit districts, oversee Covid-19 lockdown
-------------------------------------------------------------------------A health department official said the number of Covid-19 cases rose to 1,507 in Uttar Pradesh Thursday as 58 more people tested positive for the infection.
*Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with police and administration officials at his residence Tuesday (representational image) | Photo: UP Information & Public Relations Department
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday ordered senior administrative and health officers to camp in all districts that have reported more than 20 coronavirus cases to aggressively implement government’s containment measures there.
Additional Chief Secretary, Information, Awanish Awasthi told reporters here that the decision was taken after the chief minister held a meeting to review the coronavirus situation in the state.
He has directed to post senior administrative and health officers in each district with 20 or more coronavirus cases,” Awasthi said.
“There are 15 such districts in the state. As officers are already there in Gautam Buddh Nagar, in the rest 14, they will be sent. These officers will have to camp there for a week and oversee the implementation of lockdown and other health-related issues,” he added.
The CM, he said, also directed to ensure that there is no misuse of vehicles being used to transport essential goods.
“Such vehicles should be run only with driver and helper. If anyone is found carrying passengers or misusing it, the vehicle will be seized. This is a strict warning for drivers,” Awasthi said.
A health department official said the number of COVID-19 cases rose to 1,507 in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday as 58 more people tested positive for the infection.
Among the worst-hit districts as on Wednesday are: Agra, Lucknow, Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Raebareli, Bijnore, Shamli, Amroha.
Awasthi said that a record volume of ration has been distributed in the state through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Currently, 53,000 fertilizer outlets, 33,000 pesticide outlets and 36,000 seed outlets are operating in the state to facilitate agricultural activities, he said
About online teaching in higher education institutions, he said till now 93,652 e-contents have been uploaded by universities and institutions and 6.8 lakh students are taking online classes.
He also said that Rs 16,413 crore have been paid to cane farmers in the state.
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NOTE : ### 3. Pool testing should be encouraged in UP to ensure Covid-19 is contained: CM Adityanath PTI 26 April, 2020
------------------------------------------------------------Pool testing, which reduces the number of test kits used, is currently being conducted in Lucknow, Meerut and Etawah.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said pool testing should be encouraged in the state to ensure that coronavirus is contained in the hotspots and containment zones.
At present, pool testing of coronavirus samples is being conducted in Lucknow, Meerut and Etawah.
Pooling of samples involves testing them in batches and when pooled sample tests positive, then individual samples are assessed. Pool testing reduces the number of test kits used, therefore, increases testing capacity.
“For prevention of COVID-19, pool testing should be encouraged, as through pool testing more people can be tested, and thereby COVID-19 could be effectively controlled,” Adityanath said while chairing a meeting of senior UP government officials at his residence here.
He said it is very important for medical personnel to take all precautions while treating patients infected with coronavirus.
“Hence, the COVID-19 hospitals should have an adequate number of PPE kits and N-95 masks. The dedicated COVID-19 teams should be constantly monitored. The doctors, nurses, para-medical and other staff must be saved from infection at every cost,” the chief minister said.
Adityanath said the state government has earmarked hospitals for dedicated treatment of COVID-19 patients.
He also said that planning should be done to expand plasma therapy for treatment of COVID-19 patients in the state, as it has given good results.
The chief minister said the people of Uttar Pradesh who are stranded in other states and have completed their quarantine period will be brought back in a phased manner.
Adityanath directed the chief secretary, the principal secretary (medical and health) and the director general of police to seek feedback from nodal officers posted in 19 sensitive districts to effectively implement containment measures in view of the rising number of cases.
“Social distancing must be maintained in the industrial units, which have been allowed to operate. Steps should be taken to ensure that guidelines of the health department should be strictly adhered to in these industrial units. The supply chain is working properly, and it should be ensured that it works like this,” Adityanath said, adding that health check-up of people engaged in home delivery should be done continuously.
Instructions were also issued to regularly sanitise the shelter homes in the state, a statement issued by UP government said.
The chief minister asked the additional chief secretary (revenue) to do geo-tagging of shelter homes and details of the people kept there in quarantine should be compiled, and they should be linked to the Aarogya Setu app.
“Patrolling should be increased and no permission should be granted till June 30 for holding any public programme. Social media should be monitored,” he said.
Adityanath also laid stress on using RuPay cards for doing transactions.
According to the Union Health Ministry, there are 1,793 COVID-19 cases in the state and 27 people have lost their lives due to the disease.
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JAY HIND
JAI BHARATHAM
VANDHE MATHARAM
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