A day after distribution of portfolios, sedveral ministers took charge on Thursday. As most of them administered oath to their subordinates on keeping the campuses clean, one of the ministers went a step further and literally picked up a broom to clean his office.
It was a piquant situation in the Secretariat where minister Upendra Tiwari and one of his aide started sweeping the floor with broom and mopper. Tiwari is Minister of State (Independent charge) for Environment, Water Supply, land Development and Water Resources and Forest.
When some employees tried to persuade ‘mantri ji’ not to do this `menial’ job, but the minister retorted: “Jab aapko saaf karna tha tab to kiya nahi, ab updesh de rahe hain (When you were supposed to clean it (room) you did not, now youa are giving sermons,” Tiwari said.
later, Tiwari told ‘The Pioneer’ that he reached office at 9.30 am as per directions of the Chief Minister but found the room dirty.
“I waited for five minutes. I thought someone will come and clean it. But when it did not happen, I decided to clean it myself. I am used to cleaning my room and home so thats no big deal,” Tiwari said.
“When the last Samajwadi Party government did not release money for construction of roads, we constructed six roads in my constituency of Fefna (Ballia) by through ‘shram daan’. Then also I worked as labourer. This job is nothing new to me,” he said.
Cleanliness seems to be the buzzword for this government as Chief Minister Adityanath Yogi asked ministers to administer sanitation pledge to officials. He also banned the use of paan and tobacco in government offices, hospital and schools. The ministers followed this directive in letter and in spirit as they administered oath to their subordinates on their first day in office.
Power minister Shrikant Sharma said that this pledge will inculcate a sense of keeping environment clean among the officials. He later took stock of situation and enquired as how and why some cities were getting special treatment.
PWD minister Keshav Prasad Maurya visited the PWD headquarters and later administered oath of cleanliness to the employees. He told his subordinates that the PWD will switch over to e-tendering to break officer-criminal nexus in bagging contracts.
Meanwhile, most of the ministers reached their offices before 9.30 am, complying with direction given by the CM. Brajesh Pathak ,who has been made cabinet minister for law and Alternative energy, was among the first to reach the Secretariat along with another minister Upendra Tiwari.