Lucknow, May 16 -- Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said the Uttar Pradesh government is giving priority to the concept of smart villages and called for transparency in the working of gram panchayats. He made the remarks during a review meeting of the panchayati raj department.

He highlighted the vast improvement in the ease of rural living brought about by initiatives like gram sachivalayas, common service centres, the public distribution system, Utsav Bhavans, public address systems, CCTV cameras, and solar street lights.

"The concept of gram sachivalaya has been accepted as a model by the Niti Aayog. All the panchayat bhavans of the state are functioning as gram sachivalayas," he stated.

Adityanath predicted that the self-...