Yogi’s cabinet to hold meeting at Sangam, take holy dip too

LUCKNOW: In the middle of a frenzied Rs 5,100-crore Kumbh festival, the Yogi Adityanath government will hold its first-ever cabinet meeting in Allahabad on the banks of the Sangam.

UP government officials said that the meeting could be held either on January 29 or on February 4. Ministers will also take a dip in Ganga following the cabinet meeting, said officials.

Though Allahabad had hosted the first session of the Vidhan Sabha in 1952 and also housed a Raj Bhawan, which was in 1963 converted into Moti Lal Nehru Government Medical College, government officials said that the cabinet will not be hosted in any government building but inside a makeshift Swiss tent in the tent city on the Kumbh Mela grounds.

The decision was confirmed by UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who said that keeping up with the faith and beliefs of devotees, the cabinet meeting at Sangam will send a strong signal to the world on the significance of the mega event. “On an average day, 1-2 crore people are converging on Kumbh. We want to convey to the world that our development plans and holy festivals go together. “The plan was discussed at our last Cabinet meeting and it has been decided that we will have at least one sitting of cabinet in Allahabad during such an important festival,” said Maurya.

Opposition parties had mixed reactions to the move. While saying that decision would give other cities a leg-up in terms of financial and tourism thrust, they added that the government had failed to implement its Cabinet decisions to help farmers and employment, which should be given equal priority.