Zero tolerance for crime gave positive results in four years: Yogi
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday hit back at the Opposition, especially the previous Samajwadi Party regime, over its charge of a “deteriorating” law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday hit back at the Opposition, especially the previous Samajwadi Party regime, over its charge of a “deteriorating” law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh.
He asserted that his government’s zero-tolerance policy towards crime and criminals gave positive results in the past four years.
“The result of the zero-tolerance policy has been that when compared to the figures of 2016-2017, there has been a fall of 65.72 % in cases of dacoity; 66.15 % in loot; 19.80 % in murder and 45.43 % in rape in UP,” he said at a press conference on the completion of four years of his government.
Claiming that the perception of the state had changed during the past four years and it had emerged as the best destination for investments, Adityanath said it had been possible because of his government’s “performance on all fronts”, especially law and order.
“While earlier no one wanted to come to the state because of a sense of insecurity, there is no fear now. Our government has also taken strict action against professional criminals, mafia elements and others harming peace, and this has also set a norm in the country,” he said.
“To the government, a criminal is a criminal and it is also said that he does not belong to any caste or community,” he said.
Talking about his government’s performance on implementation of the central government schemes, Yogi said: “UP figured nowhere earlier in performance of implementation of central schemes. The state used to take the 25th to 26th rung. Now, in most of the central schemes, UP is number one, be it PM housing scheme (urban and rural), Swachh Bharat Mission, Ujjawala (cooking gas scheme), Jan Dhan, Swanidhi, Kisan Samman Nidhi, or Saubhagya (power) scheme. The previous government did not take interest and derive benefits for the state from the central schemes. Had they done so, the story of the state would have had been different already.”
About the health sector, Yogi Adityanath said: “UP was the worst performer in the health sector. But we scripted a turnaround story in the sector, so much so that while the Uttar Pradesh government’s Covid-19 management was praised at the national level, the World Health Organisation (WHO) also appreciated it. We controlled Covid, we also controlled encephalitis, a scourge for decades in eastern UP. We brought down encephalitis cases by 75% and reduced encephalitis deaths by 95%”.
Talking about infrastructure, Yogi said: “Before our government came in, there were only two expressways in the state, now there will be five more functional soon. Before we came in, there was not a single operational metro train in the state. We began metro in Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Noida, and Greater Noida. Kanpur and Agra have metro construction work while soon work will begin for metro-lite in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, and Jhansi. Country’s first waterway began between Varanasi and Haldia in the river Ganga. Till 2017, there were only two airports in the state, now Kushinagar international airport is almost ready, and Asia’s biggest airport is coming up at Jewar. Work on 13 new airports is in progress.”
The chief minister talked about infrastructure, law and order, agriculture and farmers’ welfare, rural development, urban development, cow protection, tourism, religious tourism (saying that UP had once again become number one on this count), industrial development, MSMEs, labour issues, education, medical health, road connectivity, air connectivity, women welfare, pensions, etc.
Senior members of his cabinet, including deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, and BJP state chief Swantantra Dev Singh were also present on the occasion.