Maya sworn in as CM; shakes up top bureaucracy, suspends 2 IAS

Lucknow, May 13 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, who was sworn in as the CM for the fourth time, announced her arrival almost instantly, suspending two IAS officers besides making sweeping changes in the state bureaucracy.

Ms Mayawati, was sworn in along with 48-strong Council of Ministers in the afternoon, heading the first majority government in the last about 16 years, declared that she would take tough administrative measures while ordering review and probe into the recent decisions taken by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

Vowing to establish a rule of law in the state and launching a special drive against criminals, the firebrand BSP supremo also announced to review all allotments of arms licences during the earlier regime.

''The erring officials will be punished and criminals send behind bars where they belonged,'' was the war cry of the new Uttar Pradesh CM.

She, however, made it clear that the political vendetta would not be behind her steps but any past actions of the nature of illegality would not be tolerated.

Her Council of Ministers consisted of 19 Cabinet ministers, 20 ministers of state with Independent charge and nine ministers of state. One among them Anand Sen, could not be administered oath due to illness, according to party sources.

In addition to set up her ''own'' CM secretariat by appointing new Principal Secretary and a team of several Secretaries, she transferred 12 senior IPS officers of Inspector General rank effecting changes in six zones of the state, including Lucknow.

Ms Mayawati also coined a new post in the state of the Cabinet Secretary and posted Mr Shashank Shekhar Singh as the first incumbent. He will also hold the additional charge of Deputy Chairman of UP State Planning Commission.

The first officials to face the brunt of her tough administrative measures, she has always been known to follow when in the power, are former PWD Principal Secretary Satish Kumar Agarwal and the Secretary, Housing and Vice-Chairman Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) B B Singh.

The stringent action was taken after she found lacking the maintenance of Ambedkar Memorial, her dream project in the state capital.

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UNI