Lucknow, May 24 (UNI) Making his stand very clear against criminals, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said that whosoever is the culprit and whatever the crime is, it is unpardonable in the eyes of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Replying to the statement of the Opposition Leader and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on law and order situation in the state, Yogi said, "It is the government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in UP and we do not believe in the philosophy of 'boys make mistakes'."
It is may be noted that in 2014 then SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had said, "Boys err at times and it is wrong to give them the death penalty for crimes like rape."
Recalling the condition of law and order in UP during the SP regime, Yogi said, "SP acted as a patron to every criminal, who was the reason behind the anarchy in the state and whose profession was hooliganism. Today, the law and order situation of UP is an example within the country."
Talking about the communal tension during the SP regime, the CM said, "Between 2012 to 2017, UP recorded over 700 major riots across the state. Curfew was imposed in districts like Muzaffarnagar, Lucknow and Bareilly for several months. There was no district without riots."
He said, "Ever since our government took over in 2017, there hasn't been a single riot in the state. We did not have to put any city under curfew because of communal tension. After the formation of the new government there were riots in seven states on the occasion of Ram Navami, nothing like that happened in UP. There was no riot on Hanuman Jayanti. And perhaps for the first time in history, Namaz was not held on the streets. There was no chaos on the streets on the occasion of Eid as well. All the festivals were celebrated in a peaceful manner."
Pointing out his government's approach towards crime and criminals, Yogi said, "We have a 'zero tolerance' policy against all types of criminals and crimes. Even the Leader of the Opposition has accepted that action has been taken. We won the historic mandate in the 2022 state Assembly polls because we maintained a healthy and unbiased law and order environment in the last five years. The number of MLAs in the house is proof of this."
Referring to the deplorable law and order situation during the SP regime, the CM recalled the incidents of violence during and after elections in the earlier days. "This time also, some people had acted after the elections were over, but we controlled them within a few hours. The government is fully sensitive to crimes related to women. The 'Anti-Romeo Squad' was constituted in 2017 to prevent crimes against women. Along with this, 218 fast track courts have also been established. There has been a sharp decline in various types of crimes taking place in UP."
He said that the previous state governments lacked the will to establish a safe and peaceful environment for every citizen without discriminating on the basis of caste and religion. "After establishing communication with spiritual and religious leaders more than one lakh loudspeakers were removed in the state," he said.
He expressed gratitude to the religious leaders for cooperating with the government and slammed the previous governments for 'doing politics of appeasement'.
Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav raised the issue of death of a woman in Siddharth Nagar in the past, replying to which the CM gave detailed information about the whole incident.
He said that after the police left Siddharth Nagar, a person named Jitendra Yadav had opened fire and an innocent Muslim woman was shot. "The criminal has been arrested. When our government was formed in 2017, at that time there were many deaths due to spurious alcohol in Azamgarh. The SP had links with the deaths caused, once we start presenting the truth with facts, it will be left with no words,” he said.
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