| Taking a step towards digitisation of government working, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday allotted districts to the newly-appointed rural development officers, saying that they could change the face of the villages.

“People are now talking about smart cities. Why should they not talk about smart villages. This government is committed to saturating all villages with basic needs so that they become ‘smart’ with modern facilities at each doorstep,” Yogi said while addressing the newly-appointed rural development officers in Lucknow on Monday.

The Chief Minister said that these officers had a big responsibility of providing houses to the poor, employment through MNREGA schemes, empowerment of women through formation of self-help groups, and ensuring that all eligible beneficiaries get benefits of pension.  

“Effective implementation of these schemes will bring Ram rajya in villages, and they in turn will become smart villages,” he said.

Yogi exhorted the rural development officers to take help of technology because it helped in weeding out corruption. 

“In this government, all appointments are made digitally and this has increased transparency and has made officials accountable for their action,” Yogi said. 

The Chief Minister said the appointment of rural development officers was made in a transparent manner. “Intelligent and dedicated youths have been selected for this job and the onus is now on these officers to transform the lives of the people,” he said.

Rural Development Minister Mahendra Singh also advocated the use of technology. 

The rural development officers cadre has around 8,000 posts but 4,000 posts are lying vacant. In the first go, 2,942 appointments have been made. 

Principal Secretary (Rural Development) Anurag Srivastava said that the process was on to fill the rest of the posts.