Yogi orders probe into construction of boundary walls around graveyards during SP rule

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday has ordered an investigation into construction of boundaries of graveyards during Akhilesh Yadav government. During previous SP regime, Rs. 1,300 crore were spent on this scheme. Earlier, Adityanath had also ordered probe into the Lucknow-Agra Expressway and Gomati river front projects launched during the SP rule. Meanwhile, as Adityanath completes 100 days in office this week as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, formidable challenges including funds for the farm loan- waiver, and law and order stare him at his face, with the opposition claiming the misses have outnumbered the hits. The loan-waiver, a major pre-poll promise of the BJP, is making finance department burn the midnight oil in trying all permutations and combination to offload the sudden fiscal burden of nearly Rs 36,369 crore. This coupled with Rs 34,000 crore for the implementation of the seventh pay commission recommendations, has put an additional burden of a whopping over Rs 70,000 crore on the state's coffers. The government faces other major challenges including of arranging funds for mega projects like the Purvanchal e-way. The government itself has admitted it could manage to make just 63 per cent of the state roads pothole-free by the June-15 deadline set by the chief minister. Distribution of free laptops among students -- mentioned in the BJP's 'sankalp patra' (election manifesto) -- is another challenge confronting the Yogi government, which was inaugurated on March 19. No date has been announced for the scheme to be launched. With certain law and order incidents, especially caste and communal clashes, threatening to eclipse the achievements of the 45-year-old saffron-clad chief minister, his officials are going the extra mile to ensure there is no dent in BJP's image in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The chief minister and his cabinet colleagues have already sought more time saying they inherited a "jungle raj" from the SP government and it would take them some time to set things in order.