The Uttar Pradesh government has deployed senior IAS officers as nodal officers for supervising development works, paddy procurement and management of cow sheds in each of the 75 districts of the state.
This is for the first time in the history of the state that the UP government has deputed senior IAS officers to each of the 75 districts for having first hand information about the development works and issues of the farmers like paddy procurement and sugarcane harvesting.
In some districts identified by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the nodal officers will camp there for three days and meet the common people and hear their grievances and also redress the grievances of the farmers on the spot.
Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi, who is in Shahjahanpur, inspected cow sheds and met farmers at the paddy procurement centres.
Additional Chief Secretary Hemant Rao was in Auraiya on Monday and he inspected the paddy procurement centres.
Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal was in Bareilly and he reviewed the preparations of the COVID-19 vaccination against coronavirus. He directed the officials to ensure collection of at least 3,000 samples of Covid test per day. He also organised a chaupal of the farmers at Bahedi town of Bareilly district.
The nodal officers in various districts visited the rural areas and paddy procurement centres and met the farmers to ascertain their grievances.
The government has also deputed senior police nodal officers in various districts, including Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar, for assessment of ground-level situation on various issues, including those being faced by protesting farmers.
Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said that the officers would submit detailed reports to the government by Tuesday.
According to official sources, the officers have been sent to assess the ground-level situation primarily of the farmers and to initiate a dialogue with them.
The move comes ahead of the scheduled talks between the Centre and the protesting farmer leaders on Tuesday.
The nodal officers will represent the government and they will assess the ground-level situation and will also look into the various local issues related to farmers.
They will also initiate dialogue with the farmers and coordinate various activities.
The nodal officers, during the field visits, will also visit the cane purchase centres and enquire about the availability of water in irrigation canals and ascertain whether the water is reaching the tail end of the canal.
The officers have also been directed to review the availability of electricity in rural areas and small towns and to supervise the progress of the varasat campaign being run by the Revenue department.
Earlier in September, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had deputed special secretary-level officers as nodal officers in the districts which reported 100 or more COVID-19 cases per day to effectively contain the coronavirus outbreak.