Rattled by her party’s defeat in 15 of the 17 reserved Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, Chief Minister Mayawati has asked senior bureaucrats to visit Dalit-dominated areas and find out people’s grievances. As many as 24 officers, including those in the rank of Principal Secretary and Secretary and those posted at the CM’s Secretariat, have been handpicked for the tour and by June 15, they will have to submit reports to the Chief Secretary.

Each officer has been allotted three districts where they will spend two days, meeting villagers to know the ground reality regarding implementation of various welfare schemes. They will enquire about construction of toilets, drainages and roads, and condition of hand-pumps in villages. They will find out about land allotted to lease holders, progress of NREGS, distribution of kerosene and ration to the BPL families, and power supply.

Principal Secretaries to Chief Minister Ravindra Singh, Arun Sinha and Shailesh Krishna have already toured Faizabad, Allahabad and Jaunpur, respectively, Principal Secretaries in the Department of Medical and Health and Urban Development Pradeep Shukla and Alok Ranjan have visited Farukhabad and Mau, respectively.

Sources said the exercise was planned after Mayawati’s meeting with BSP MLAs, who complained against the bureaucracy.

Earlier, the Chief Minister had ordered Director General of Police Vikram Singh to visit each and every place where Dalits have been victims of crime. In the last fortnight, the police chief has visited Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich and Azamgarh and ordered action against local police officers.

A team of Additional Cabinet Secretary Vijay Shankar Pandey, Principal Secretary (Home) Kunwar Fateh Bahadur, and Deputy Inspector General of Police Jasvir Singh has been put on the job to disseminate the CM’s message of “zero tolerance to corruption” across all Government departments.