Prayagraj: The Uttar Pradesh cabinet met outside the state capital on Tuesday for only the second time in history, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath chairing a meeting at Prayagraj — the venue of the Kumbh.
The Chief Minister was flanked by his deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma at the meeting held at the sprawling tented complex on the banks of the holy trinity of Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
Before the meeting, Adityanath prayed at an iconic temple of Lord Hanuman where he was greeted by Narendra Giri, the priest. He took part in an ‘aarti’ and performed rituals.
The monk-turned-Chief Minister, along with his ministerial colleagues, also went to the Aksyavat tree and ‘Saraswati Koop’ inside the fort here.
The first meeting of the Uttar Pradesh cabinet away from Lucknow was held in 1962 in Nainital when Govind Vallabh Pant was the Chief Minister.
Heavy security was enforced at the Kumbh for the high-profile visit and a vast area near the Sangam was thrown out of bounds for the pilgrims.
At the cabinet meeting held at the Integrated Control and Common Centre (ICCC), 28 Ministers participated, an official said. All of them are later scheduled to take a holy dip in the Sangam as part of Kumbh festivities.
Prominent among the Ministers who were present were Suresh Khanna (Urban Development), Ashutosh Tandon (Medical Education), Siddhartha Nath Singh (Health), Rita Bahuguna Joshi (Tourism), Satish Mahana (Industries) and Brajesh Pathak (Law).
[source_without_link]IANS[/source_without_link]