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Drastic fall in crime rate, claims U.P. Govt.

LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party Government claimed in the Vidhan Sabha on Monday that the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh had improved with a decline in major crimes, including murder, loot, dacoity and crimes against women, since Chief Minister Mayawati assumed power in May 2007. “The Government has been successful in making U.P. a crime-free State,” it said.

The Government’s claim was strongly rubbished by the Opposition parties.

Presenting the Home Department and Police Budget in the Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma said it was the Government’s priority to make U.P. a crime-free and development-oriented State where citizens and entrepreneurs had no fear. Asserting that the rule of law had been re-established after a stint of “jungle raj”, he said the better law and order situation was intertwined with the development process.

Earlier, the entrepreneurs shied away from investing in the State but now the results of the Government’s efforts to improve the law and order situation were visible, Mr. Verma said.

He said cases of murder in the Mayawati regime had registered a decline by 20 per cent, loot cases by 16 per cent, dacoity by 39 per cent, dowry cases 5 per cent and rape 12 per cent.

Mr. Verma said a 16 per cent increase had been recorded in cases under the Arms Act and 57 per cent under the Gangster’s Act. Action was initiated against 2.45 lakh criminals of whom around 2 lakh were arrested, he added.

On terrorist activities, the Minister said three terror incidents took place but the police arrested six terrorists of Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI), three of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and six of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) involved in the attack on CRPF Group Centre in Rampur. An Anti-Terrorist Squad and a Special Investigation Team had been constituted by the Government.

Mr. Verma said over a dozen dacoits, including the dreaded Shiv Kumar alias Dadua, were killed in encounters with the police.

Moving a cut motion, Ambika Chaudhary of Samajwadi Party noted Ms. Mayawati’s absence and said this was the first time since 1987 that the Home and Police Budget had not been presented in the Vidhan Sabha by the Leader of the House -- the Chief Minister -- or the Home Minister. On earlier occasions, he said, the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition had been present when the Budget was tabled. (Leader of Opposition Mulayam Singh was present this time).

Mr. Chaudhary disputed the Government’s claims and said the Budget was wide off target.

The BJP, Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal rejected the Government’s contention that the law and order situation had improved.

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Drastic fall in crime rate, claims U.P. Govt.

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