Trivendra Rawat’s cabinet grants govt status to UP CM Yogi’s college

The Trivendra Singh Rawat dispensation on Wednesday granted the status of a government college to an educational institution set up at the initiative of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Yamkeshwar, a tehsil in Uttarakhand;s Pauri Garhwal district.

The Mahayogi Guru Gorakhnath Mahavidyalaya was set up in 1999 when Adityanath was a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur. The college is named after Goraknath, the founder of the Nath sect. Adityanath is the chief mahant (priest) at the Gorakhnath temple in UP.

The decision to grant the college government status was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister in Dehradun. Informing about the decision, cabinet minister Madan Kaushik said that the college will now be “provided for and looked after” by the Uttarakhand government.

The decision comes just over a year after the Rawat cabinet had granted the college government-aided status in April 2017.

Kaushik said six issues were lined up for discussion in the cabinet meet, but only four were approved.

The cabinet approved to enforce the Uttarakhand Regulation of Money Lending Rules 2018. Unlike its parent state, Uttar Pradesh which enforced the Act in 1976, the Uttarakhand government took 18 years to bring this rule.

The rules will put regulation on money lending transactions and will also ensure registration of money-lenders. This also includes national banks.

In addition, it also approved amendments in the Jail Women Wardens Rules. Now, women who have cleared 12th would be eligible for direct appointment to the positions in jails. The minimum age limit has also been increased from 18 years to 21 years and maximum to 35 years.

The government also took responsibility of repaying Rs 4 lakh that was looted from commercial tax employee Triveni Ram Yadav in 2010. This money was to be paid to 11 employees, which government will bear now.