The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party in the Vidhan Sabha on Monday rejected the State Government’s claim that the the law and order situation had improved under the Mayawati regime in Uttar Pradesh.
Dismissing the government’s claim about decrease in crime rate,the Samajwadi Party staged a walkout. It also expressed dissatisfaction over the government’s reply on posts of station house officers being reserved for the backward classes and minorities.
Replying to a question on the law and order situation in the State during Question Hour, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Lalji Verma said that between 2005 and 2009 dacoity cases had declined by 13.7 per cent and incidents of murder had decreased by 27.15 per cent. The minister added that the fall in other crime rates over the same period was: kidnapping for ransom by 31.43 per cent, road hold-ups by 59 per cent, dowry deaths by 6 per cent and rape cases by 15.17 per cent.
Drawing a comparison of the crime rate between the Mulayam Singh and Mayawati regimes, Mr. Verma said the monthly crime average too had declined under the Bahujan Samaj Party Government.
While the monthly average of dacoity cases in the Samajwadi Party regime was 18 per cent in the two and a half years of the BSP Government it was 10 per cent. Likewise, while an average of 157 loot cases were recorded per month under the previous regime, under the present government it was 122, the minister said. In relation to murder and kidnapping cases the monthly average was 475 and 355, and 14 and 5 respectively, the minister added.
He said directives have been issued to the district police chiefs for controlling the crime rate and maintaining law and order, adding that the results have been positive.
BJP member Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, however, disagree with the government’s version and said that according to the website of the State home department, in 2008 114 cases of dacoity were recorded, which went up to 147 in 2009. He said in 2008, 1564 cases of loot were committed and in 2009 the ratio went up to 1628. Mr. Agarwal raised the question if there was any proposal to constitute a State security commission for effective monitoring of the law and order and crime situation.
BJP member Hukum Singh said there has been a 25 increase in the crime rate under the present regime. The BJP members wanted to know which of the two versions – one given by the minister and the other obtained from the home department’s website – was correct.
SP’s Ambika Chaudhary objected to the comparative analysis by taking 2005 and 2009 as base years, and said yearly average should be given.
The MLA asked if posts of police station in charge would be reserved for the Backward Communities and minorities in proportion to their population, as has been done for the Scheduled Castes.
The SP MLAs staged a walkout as they accused the government for not being clear in its reply although the parliamentary affairs minister did say that directives have been issued for reserving posts for BCs and minorities in proportion to their population.
