Yogi completes six months in office, claims criminals on the run

Lucknow, Sep 19 (IANS) On completing six months in office, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday claimed that rule of law had returned to the state under the BJP government and that criminals were running scared.

Addressing a press conference in the state capital, Adityanath said that more than 430 police encounters have taken place in the past six months in which many criminals have been killed. He said that 1,106 criminals have also been arrested.

The monk-turned-Chief Minister also said that it was for the first time in 15 years that Uttar Pradesh had a government which was "bereft of casteism and dynastic politics".

"We have ushered in a new style of politics which is development oriented and focussed on youngsters," he said. Flanked by his cabinet colleagues and other senior bureaucrats, the Chief Minister dished out statistics on the agriculture sector and other departments.

Adityanath also said that ill-gotten property of 668 infamous criminals worth several crores had been seized by the police under the Gangsters Act, while property worth Rs 33 crore belonging to the land mafia has been confiscated by law enforcement agencies. In the police encounters, 88 policemen were injured and one sub-inspector killed, he added.

He also sought to take credit of no riots taking place in the state under the BJP government so far and said that policemen had been given a free hand to act against criminals without any prejudice or succumb to any pressure. "There was a time under the previous government when police officials were scared to act against criminals as they feared reprimand from the powers that be," he remarked.

Adityanath said the state government had accorded top priority to the agriculture sector and farmers and cited the crop loan waiver as an example of prioritising farmers interests. Adityanath said that so far loans of 86 lakh farmers of various amounts upto Rs 1 lakh have been waived by his government.