Yogi Adityanath government issues order to appoint Officers on Special Duty to all ministers
The state Cabinet at present has Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, two Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, nine ministers of state (independent charge) and 13 other state ministers.
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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)
In a first in Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to appoint an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to each minister. The state government had issued the order recently. Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar told The Indian Express, “A policy has been approved for the appointment of OSD in the staff with ministers.”
While top government officers claimed the decision was taken following a demand raised by a number of ministers, BJP insiders revealed that the initiative has been taken to accommodate full-time workers of RSS and other offshoots like ABVP as OSDs. A discussion in this regard was held by the RSS and BJP functionaries in a recent coordination meeting.
The state Cabinet at present has Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, two Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, nine ministers of state (independent charge) and 13 other state ministers. Only the chief minister has OSDs, some of whom are state government employees while some are from the BJP.
The deputy CMs, Cabinet ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers have nine member personal staff, which includes one personal secretary, two additional personal secretary, review officer, assistant review officer, three class four employees and a PRO. PROs are, however, allowed only for deputy CMs, Cabinet ministers and ministers of state (independent charge) while other state ministers are not provided with PROs at the government expense.
As per the fresh order issued by the Confidential Department, deputy CMs will have 11 staff with the addition of one review officer and one assistant review officer. The Cabinet ministers and state ministers (independent charge) will have nine staff (as earlier) but state ministers will have only seven staff. There will be no PROs with them.
If any additional staff is demanded, then a temporary post would be created with the approval of the chief minister. But to accommodate the new appointment of their choice, the deputy CMs and ministers will have to surrender one of their existing staff, the order stated. The OSD will be paid the same salary being paid to the staff who will be surrendered by the minister. Sources said that the ministers will be allowed to get more than one OSD, but the limit of the maximum number of personal staff must be maintained. OSDs will be appointed in the place of PROs, they added.
Recently, some OSDs have been appointed to the chief minister, including Abhishek Kaushik and Sanjeev Singh , who were ABVP workers before joining the BJP. “Usually, OSDs are chosen from the party (BJP) to look after the works related to redressal of grievances of party workers and they function as a bridge between the ministers and the party,” said a BJP leader.
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