Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday replaced his “Team-11”, a group of officials tasked with managing the crises, with a new nine-member set of Ministers and bureaucrats.
Opposition parties have been slamming Adityanath and Team-11 for their alleged failure to control the pandemic in the country’s most populous state.
The CM was also accused of relying too much on bureaucrats, an allegation levelled also by an MLA from the ruling BJP itself. “Chief Minister Adityanath’s experiment to control the COVID pandemic with the help of the bureaucracy has failed,” Bairia MLA Surendra Singh told reporters on Friday.
He said the system should centre around elected representatives and not the bureaucracy. Unlike Team-11, the new group called “Team- 9” also has two ministers. The nine members head their own committees or departments involved in fighting the pandemic.
“The CM has constituted a new Team-9 for effective management of COVID-19 and related work. This team will directly report to the CM and carry out important work in different fields,” a government spokesperson said.