Uttar Pradesh Assembly (Source: PTI photo)
After 15 minutes of uproar over the “explosive” substance recently found in Assembly, House proceedings began after the Speaker agreed to call an all-party meeting on the issue.
The first question taken up was regarding a number of incidents of murder, rape, loot, kidnapping etc. across the state from March 15 to May 9. In reply, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna provided statistics of crimes that have taken place during this period (see box).
While senior SP MLA Parasnath Yadav demanded that state government should also present comparitive figures from the previous years, Khanna said he did not have such data as it was not part of the main question. However, he claimed that cases were not registered during the previous government whereas in the present regime, people do not have to wait for a call from an “influential person” to get the case registered.
“Humne kabhi zero crime ki baat nahi kahi, apradh to hote hain (We have never spoken about zero crime, crimes keep happening),” said Khanna, adding that the bigger question is whether the government is standing up against the criminals. Citing figures on people booked under various Acts (see box), Khanna said, “Yogi ji ki sarkar sanrakshan nahi dena chahti (Yogi government does not wish to give shelter to such people).” However, SP members asked why a counter FIR has not been registered in Rae Bareli, where 5 persons were murdered. When the Speaker said the question had already been replied to, SP MLAs staged a walkout, followed by Congress members.
Ajay Kumar ‘Lallu’, Congress Legislature Party leader, tried to put up a supplementary question and when members from the treasury benches said that proceedings have moved to another question, Lallu along with three other members of his party staged a walkout.
The Opposition also raised the issue of the fire in the KGMU trauma centre and demanded a debate on fire safety. Pointing out that there were also reports that some records regarding purchase of medicines were kept in the room where the fire broke out, Uma Shanker Singh of BSP said it has become a “trend” that wherever a question is being raised about anomaly, fraud or corruption, incidents of fire take place.
In reply, Ashutosh Tandon, medical education minister, said that the building was constructed during previous regimes, which did not take fire safety norms into consideration during construction. Assuring the House that measures were being taken to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future, he pointed out that during the KGMU fire, iron grills on the windows had become a hindrance for fire-fighters.
Sidharth Nath Singh, minister for health and family welfare, informed the House that annual fire safety audit of the (hospital) buildings, which had not been done earlier, will now be ensured. He also said that as per WHO norms, there should be one doctor for a population of 1000, but in UP, this ratio is 0.63 per 1000, including both government and private doctors. He said that for every 1000 people, there are less than 1.5 beds available, and considering the poverty ratio as compared to the total population, out of 100 districts from the bottom, 22 districts are of UP.
