Indian Express: Luchnow: Wednesday, 15 July 2015.
Since
Varanasi elected Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister’s constituency has had 129
visits by 31 ministers of the 64-member Council of Ministers between May 26
last year and June 30 this year. Additionally, an RTI reply from the district
administration shows, there have been 144 visits by various senior officers,
including 56 of the ranks of secretary and joint secretary, from 27 ministries
to assess their respective projects.
Minister of
State (MoS) for Railways Manoj Sinha has visited 52 times, spending time in
Varanasi whenever he visits his own constituency, Ghazipur, which is next door.
Recently, he inspected the progress of railway projects as well as of the
Textile Ministry’s Trade Facilitation Centre and Crafts Museum project. The PM
has directed Sinha and ministers Santosh Gangwar (Textiles, five visits) and
Mahesh Sharma (Tourism and Culture, three visits) to be in the constituency
office at least one a month and address the grievances of public.
Minister for
Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra has visited Varanasi 16
times, holding meetings for promotion of small industries in the region.
Modi himself
has visited twice, on November 11 and December 25. He cancelled a visit last
October and another this June. He is expected to be in Varanasi on Thursday to
launch a number of development projects.
“Union
ministers and officials have visited Varanasi to monitor implementation of
central projects. With the frequent visits of Union ministers, visits of UP
ministers too have increased,” said additional district magistrate (protocol)
Om Prakash Chaubey.
The BJP’s
Kashi region president Laxman Acharya said, “Since Modiji has chosen Varanasi
as a backward region where to work, departments and officials have realised
their responsibilities and are giving special attention to Varanasi.”
Among the
high-profile officials to have visited Varanasi are principal secretary to the
PM Nripendra Mishra and joint secretary A K Sharma, who stayed there on March
27 and 28 to review the progress of centrally sponsored projects. Both also
visited Modi’s adopted village, Jayapur.
There have
been three visits by Railway Board chairpersons, including two by Arunendra
Kumar last year and one by his successor A K Mittal.
The Urban
Development Ministry having prepared a blueprint for the integrated development
of Varanasi, secretary Sudhir Krishna visited in June last year. Shankar
Agrawal visited as director and later as secretary while two joint secretaries
visited on separate occasions.
Other
ministries from where officials have visited Varanasi include Women and Child
Development; Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Social Justice and
Empowerment; Road Transport and Highways; Shipping; Health and Family Welfare;
Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation; Power; Environment,
Forest and Climate Change; Agriculture, Commerce; Tourism; Home; MSME; Culture;
Finance; Defence; HRD; Petroleum and Natural Gas; Communications and
Information Technology, Minority Affairs, Civil Aviation, Statistics and
Programme Implementation, and AYUSH.
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