Yogi Adityanath setting up 'mini secretariat office' in Gorakhpur

The Uttar Pradesh CM has spent 65-70 days in Gorakhpur after taking office

Ever since Yogi Adityanath took over as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, his home turf of Gorakhpur is set to add another feather to its cap in the form of a ‘mini secretariat’.

The satellite office is being set up at Gorakhpur circuit house to allow the CM hold meetings with senior officials during his multiple visits to the city. Over the past 13 months in office, Adityanath has spent 65-70 days in Gorakhpur, the maximum outside the permanent seat of power in Lucknow. Since, Adityanath is also the presiding seer of Gorakshnath Peeth, he regularly visits Gorakhpur and stays put at the powerful monastery during the overnight stay.

Yesterday, the Chief Minister had inspected the ongoing work on the two-storey mini secretariat and set the deadline of June 15 for the Public Works Department (PWD) to complete the project. The mini office would be equipped with all modern amenities and comprise a large meeting hall. According to sources, the mini secretariat would function even in his absence and manned by staff to hear the grievances of people.

In the backdrop of the recent Gorakhpur bypoll defeat at the hands of the combined forces of the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Adityanath has upped the ante in reiterating his priorities for his pocket borough with the 2019 Lok Sabha poll less than a year away when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would seek re-election.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh CM met the local traders and assured that funds constraints would not affect the infrastructure development in the Gorakhpur region. He directed the commissioner and district magistrate to confabulate with the trading community every month for redressing their grievances. Gorakhpur is the largest town in Eastern UP and a major trading hub in the region encompassing the neighbouring pockets of Bihar and Nepal.

Earlier, Adityanath had aan sked Gorakhpur Industrial Development Authority (GIDA) to aggregate industrial land bank of 10,000 acres near the proposed link road of the proposed Purvanchal Expressway, which is estimated to cost 180 billion. Currently, GIDA has land bank of 1,700 acres and ramping up it by 10,000 acres means augmenting it almost 6 times.

Purvanchal Expressway would traverse nine districts viz. Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. The 341 km long Expressway would also connect Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency with a direct link road.

Besides, the CM had directed for increased patrolling in the GIDA area for instilling confidence among industrialists. The CM had also announced that investment to the tune of Rs 15 billion would be facilitated in GIDA over the next 12 months. The total investment in GIDA of Rs 12 billion since inception was grossly inadequate to meet the growing industrial development requirements in the region, he noted.