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On the eve of CEC's visit, Govt. paints a rosy picture

Atiq Khan

One of the best policed States in the country, claims DGP

LUCKNOW: With the crime situation stalking the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government, the Director-General of Uttar Pradesh Police, Bua Singh, and the State Principal Secretary (Home), Satish Kumar Agrawal, on Tuesday sought to paint a rosy picture claiming that U.P. was "one of the best policed States in the country".

For the two senior officials responsible for maintenance of law and order and containment of the crime rate, everything seems hunky-dory in U.P. with a steep decline recorded under the main heads of crime including dacoity, loot, murder, road hold-ups, rape, crimes under the Indian Penal Code and kidnapping for ransom. "Moreover, communal harmony had been maintained and caste tensions kept under check." In short, the law and order situation in the State had improved in the three years of Mulayam "raj", they claimed.

The officials accused a section of the media of creating a "false impression" about the law and order and crime scenario in the State as a "stray kidnapping incident or multiple killings in a remote village did not mean that law and order had nose-dived".

The specially arranged press conference at which the DGP reeled out statistics to prove the Government's point assumed significance from a related aspect. The Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopala Swamy, is reaching Lucknow on Wednesday evening on a two-day visit to review the poll preparations in the State. The CEC is scheduled to meet senior administrative and police officers including the Chief Secretary, the DGP, Home Department officials and divisional commissioners on Thursday before meeting representatives of political parties. He is likely to announce the poll schedule after his Lucknow visit.

Last week, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav wrote to the Election Commission that he preferred the Vidhan Sabha elections being held in February-March next year.

Stating that improvement in the law and order situation was made possible through "prompt investigation, arrests and prosecution", Mr. Singh and Mr. Agarwal lauded the Noida police and the Special Task Force for unravelling the recent Anant Gupta kidnapping in Noida. The DGP said the kidnapping was not planned by an organised gang; the kidnappers were driven by the urge to get rich quick after seeing a Hindi movie. He said two accused and three of their harbourers had been arrested.

The police had killed three of the five persons involved in the kidnapping of an Allahabad young man, Neeraj Agarwal, said Mr. Singh, adding that the Rs.10-lakh "supari" for the youth was given by his business partner. (The youth's body was recovered from the jungles in Chitrakoot district a couple of days ago). On rooting out corruption in the police force, the Police Chief said 86 policemen had been arrested, 40 dismissed from service and 191 suspended.

According to the DGP, from 234 in 2004 and 187 in 2005, the dacoity cases had declined to 91 till October 2006 this year. Loot cases declined from 1,844 in 2004 and 1,540 in 2005 to 1,320 in 2006. "Murder, road hold-up and rape cases came down by 13 per cent, 17 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, over 2004 and 16 per cent, 21 per cent and 34 per cent over 2005."

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