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For Yadav, crimes are just social evils

Special Correspondent

Noida kidnapping and Sitapur killings cannot be equated with law and order: Chief Minister

Photo: Subir Roy

TIME TO CELEBRATE: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav being felicitated on his 68th birthday, in Lucknow on Wednesday.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Wednesday that the Noida kidnapping and the multiple killings in Sitapur district cannot be equated with the law and order situation in the State. These crimes were the outcome of social ills that had permeated society in general, he added.

Backing the claims of the State police chief and the Principal Home Secretary that the law and order situation in U.P. had improved, the Chief Minister said during Zero Hour in the Vidhan Sabha that incidents of crime had occurred under the previous regimes also.

Mr. Yadav, who was replying to the notice on Sitapur killings served by the Leader of the Opposition, Lalji Tandon, and Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tiwari, solicited all-party support in removing the social evils which he said were the genesis of all crimes.

In an impassioned plea to the Opposition to let the Government fulfil its responsibility towards the people, the Chief Minister lauded the Director General of Police, Bua Singh, for improvement in the law and order situation and decline in the crime rate.

The Chief Minister described the Shankarpur village carnage in Sitapur district as reprehensible and admitted that there was slackness on the part of the local officials to grasp the intensity of the land dispute between two families or groups. He assured the House that strict action would be taken against the guilty officials and efforts would be made to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. He said criminals would be treated as criminals irrespective of which caste or creed they belonged.

However, the Chief Minister stated that the abduction of the three-year-old child in Noida or the kidnapping of a young man in Allahabad could not be related to the law and order situation in the State.

He blamed a section of the media for glamorising criminals and dacoits. "They will not interview me or the Leader of the Opposition," he remarked.

Raising the issue, the Leader of the Opposition accused the police and the Sitapur district officials of ignoring the danger signals that eventually led to the cold-blooded killings of 15 persons on November 15-16 in Shankarpur village.

Mr. Tandon said in the wake of the carnage people were fleeing the village as they feared more murders would take place.

Stating that he had visited Shankarpur village, Mr. Tandon informed the House that the perpetrators of the crime had threatened to kill 10 other persons. He said PAC had been deployed in the village but it was literally groping in the dark as there was no electricity.

He said such gory incidents had not deterred the State officials to claim improvement in the law and order situation.

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