By PTI
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said no communal riots broke out during his tenure, while they had almost doubled from the previous regime during the government of the Samajwadi Party.
He accused the previous government of indulging in “andar baat” (favoritism) in the name of development. Presenting a five-year report card of his government, Adityanath cited figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to prove that crime graph came down under his regime.
“In the BSP regime (2007-2012), there were 364 riots. During the SP tenure (2012-2017), there were over 700 big riots in which hundreds were killed.”
“Since 2017, no riots or terrorist activities have taken place in the state. Yet, the government isn’t quiet. We are building an Anti-Terrorism Squad Centre at sensitive places in view of national security,” he told reporters here.
Adityanath accused his predecessors of failing to undertake police reforms and said they wanted to use the department as their “personal tool”.
“They only indulged in ‘Bandar baat’ in the name of development and the Akhilesh Yadav government’s development was seen only in the boundary walls of ‘kabristan’,” he said, apparently accusing the ex-CM of favoring Muslims.
He said UP has been free of riots and terrorist activities for the last five years and has become the preferred destination for investors.
Comparing the SP government in 2016-2017 with his regime on the basis of NCRB data, Adityanath said cases of dacoity’ came down by 58 per cent, loot by 64 per cent, murder by 23 per cent, kidnapping by 53 per cent, dowry killing by 8 per cent, and rape by 43 per cent.
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“Despite being a big state, we achieved success in bringing down these cases. We introduced the anti-conversion law and the Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Property law,” he said.
Adityanath said 155 hardcore criminals were killed in encounters, while another 3,638 were injured in raids during his tenure.
“Thirteen police personnel were killed and 1,236 policemen were injured. As many as 48,038 people were arrested under the Gangster Act, while the National Security Act was invoked against 694 criminals,” he said.
Illegal properties worth Rs 2,046 crore belonging to criminals were seized and demolished, he said.
“Police recruitment could not be held in the previous regime. We recruited 1.5 lakh personnel in a transparent manner and promoted thousands of them. We worked towards modernizing the police force, police lines and stations,” Adityanath said, adding that the number of women in the department tripled in his government compared to the previous governments.
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He said better law and order practice changed the image of the state and, as a result, MoUs for investment proposals worth Rs 4.68 lakh crore were signed in its first investment summit. A record Rs 3 lakh crore worth projects have already been executed, he said.
Even during Covid, the state received investment proposals worth over Rs 66,000 crore, he said.
The CM said that between 1947-2017, UP’s economy was at sixth place but it reached second place in the past five years and the state’s per capita income increased from Rs 46,000 per annum to Rs 94,000 per annum.
“From a Rs 2 lakh crore annual budget in 2015-16, this year budget has increased to Rs 6 lakh crore. In Ease of doing business, UP has come second from 14th place in 2015-16 and the unemployment rate has also come down to 3 per cent from 18 per cent in 2016-17,” he said.
He claimed that his government paid sugarcane dues to the tune of Rs 1.57 lakh crore to farmers. He said the sugar production was also increased from 64 lakh metric tons under the previous regime to over 116 lakh metric tons now.
He said under his government, a number of women empowerment schemes were launched and 218 fast track courts were constituted to hear POCSO related cases. The CM claimed that before 2017 several incidents of deaths due to starvation were witnessed with many such cases being reported from Kushinagar, Sonbhadra, Chitrakoot, and other districts. “We are providing ration to all eligible people,” he added.
