India: UP setting new records in ease of doing crime

 Ajay Kumar Lallu

Lucknow, Jan 10 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu on Sunday attacked the BJP government over law and order, saying the state is setting new records in "ease of doing crime".

In a statement issued here, Lallu said, "Anarchy and crime are at their peak in the state. As far as the law and order situation in UP is concerned, Uttar Pradesh is setting new records in ease of doing crime."

Lallu said instead of fixing the shattered law and order problem, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath declared rather stubbornly that the poor people in the state are getting justice while the mafia and their sympathisers are feeling afraid.

The statement of the chief minister is not only laughable but also plays with sentiments of people, Lallu told reporters in Barabanki.

The UP Congress chief said farmers are sad and worried under the BJP rule and on January 15, his party workers will gherao the UP Raj Bhavan.

Lallu's statement came hours after Adityanath justified the drive against land mafia, claiming that sympathisers of such people are feeling worried, in an indirect attack on SP president Akhilesh Yadav.

Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, had told reporters in Banda on Friday that the Adityanath government was targeting some people and demolishing their houses.

Addressing a 'Mukhyamantri Aarogya Mela' here, Adityanath said only criminals, mafia and gangsters were feeling afraid in the state.

"Today, the government in the state is working with a pledge. Earlier, the land of the poor and traders used to be grabbed by mafia," he said.

Without taking any name, the chief minister said, "These sympathisers did not have a problem when the land mafia used to grab the land of a poor person, trader or a common man. They are having problems when the property belonging to the poor and farmers are being freed from criminals and mafia.