Lucknow, August 23, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday announced a package of social security measures for 3.53 lakh cooks working under the PM Poshan Yojana in government and aided schools, while accusing the Samajwadi Party of circulating old videos of dilapidated school buildings to criticise his government.
Addressing a felicitation programme for mid-day meal cooks in Lucknow, Yogi announced that their monthly honorarium would be increased to Rs 3,000. Each cook will also receive accidental assistance of Rs 2 lakh, while their families will be eligible for cashless medical treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh annually. The government will also double the existing provision for clothing.
The Chief Minister symbolically distributed cashless medical cards to 11 cooks. Around 1,500 cooks from across Uttar Pradesh attended the Lucknow event, while similar programmes were organised at district and tehsil levels.
Yogi said the government would open bank accounts for cooks and transfer their honorarium directly into them. He also stressed that cooks play an important role in ensuring that children receive nutritious meals under the PM Poshan scheme.
He appealed to cooks and officials to maintain strict hygiene standards while preparing food and prevent unauthorised entry into kitchens to minimise the risk of food poisoning.
The Chief Minister also targeted the SP over social media videos showing schools in poor condition, claiming that many of the buildings shown dated back to the period before 2017, when the SP was in power.
“We have replaced old and dilapidated buildings with new ones. Some people are sharing photographs of the old, dilapidated buildings on social media,” he said.
Yogi claimed that his government was identifying unsafe structures and replacing them, while also expanding educational infrastructure through initiatives such as Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, Bal Vatika and ICT laboratories.
He alleged that the education and law-and-order systems had deteriorated under the previous SP government and claimed that the situation had changed since the BJP came to power.
Without naming SP president Akhilesh Yadav, Yogi referred to him as “Babua” and criticised what he described as a lack of commitment to governance. He said running a government required time, hard work and continuous monitoring of schemes and departmental performance.
The Chief Minister also alleged that land grabbing and concerns over women’s safety had been widespread under the previous government, while claiming that law and order had since improved.
He further said Uttar Pradesh’s examination system had become free from cheating and that the government was working to improve the overall quality of education.
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