Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will preside over the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's first Cabinet meeting on April 4.
According to reports, the agenda for the meeting, which comes two weeks after Adityanath took oath, is not known as of now. However, given the BJP's pre-poll promises and some of the recent controversial measures taken by the Adityanath government, such as shutting down of slaughterhouses across the state and the anti-Romeo squads, it would not be difficult to guess the important points for discussion at the meeting.
Here are some of them:
Here are some of them:
Farm-loan waivers
Controversy aside, one of the most pressing issues during the meeting is likely to be the promised farm loan waiver. In its Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra (election manifesto) for the UP Assembly polls, the BJP had promised to waive the loans of small and marginal farmers. Besides, while campaigning in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that writing off farmers' loans would be among the foremost tasks of the BJP government in UP. In fact, Modi had promised that a decision on loan waiver would be taken at the first Cabinet meeting if BJP formed a government in the state. (Read more)
However, in what could prove to be a setback for Adityanath, days after he took power as UP chief minister, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ruled out farm loan waivers by the Centre. Jaitley had said that states would have to utilise their own resources for any such waiver.
Also, according to officials, there are around 23 million farmers in UP, of whom around 21.5 million fall in the 'small and marginal' category. This, no small number, represents a large section of the voters who would have voted for the new government and would vote in the 2019 general elections as well.
The issue is also likely to be discussed with urgency, given that the state government might not have too much fiscal space to fulfil its promise.
As reported earlier, reports show that of the Rs 75,000 crore worth of loans extended to farmers in the state, only Rs 8,000 crore was extended by state cooperative and primary agricultural credit societies. Even if the loan waiver is extended only to the latter, the state’s fiscal position could worsen. In 2016-17, UP had budgeted for a fiscal deficit of Rs 49,960 crore (4.04 per cent of the gross state domestic product, or GSDP, including the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, or UDAY). But it ended up climbing to Rs 55,020 crore (4.45 per cent of GSDP). At a time when the state is also staring at its Pay Commission obligations, any additional burden is bound to be fiscally ruinous. (Read more)
Meat ban
While state-wide strikes by meat sellers against the government's crackdown on illegal slaughter houses have been called off since Saturday, it had generated critical headlines across the nation until a few days earlier. Also, the government has not, as of now, officially backed down from its commitment to shutter illegal slaughterhouses in the state -- another of its poll promises. (Read more)
On Saturday, Lucknow Bakra Gosht Vyapar Mandal office bearer Mubeen Qureshi said, "The Uttar Pradesh government assured us that it would open the Maulviganj slaughter house here and at the same time build another slaughter house." With the current crisis averted, the government could look at how to pursue its policy in this regard while ensuring that no untoward incident, like the one in the Hathras area, occured.
Shortly after Adityanath took his oath of office, a number of meat shops and slaughter houses, mostly illegal, were either attacked or forced shut by vigilantes or by the district administration at various places in the state. (Read more)
However, promises aside, the meat industry is big in UP and a lot of people depend on it for their livelihoods. So, the issue might figure high on the Cabinet meeting's agenda.
As reported earlier, operations have been disrupted completely for the past few days because of an atmosphere of fear across the supply chain. Besides, UP is estimated to account for more than half of the country’s $4-billion annual buffalo meat exports. Its big markets are Vietnam, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. In fact, India earns more foreign exchange from buffalo meat exports than basmati rice ($3.48 billion in FY16). Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attacked the United Progressive Alliance government during his 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign for promoting a “Pink Revolution” by encouraging meat exports. However, the BJP government at the Centre has not taken any action to discourage shipments. (Read more)
Anti-romeo squads
The state government's anti-eve teasing initiative has also met with much criticism, owing to allegations of moral policing and harassment of young couples.
According to reports, three policemen were recently suspended after a video of some persons shaving the head of a youth found roaming with a female friend went viral on social media. (Read more)
Also, recently, the Allahabad High Court directed the UP government to ensure that certain guidelines are followed by anti-Romeo squads and action be taken in accordance with the law. (Read more)
The mounting criticism was apparently so significant that Adityanath, less than a week after he took oath, had to step in to clarify that the anti-romeo squads would not trouble "girls and boys who are walking on the roads together with consent". (Read more)
A controversy- and incident-free method of implementing the initiative could also feature at the Cabinet meeting.