No criminal roaming free in UP: Yogi Adityanath

UP CM Yogi Adityanath at an event to mark the Police Commemoration Day, at Police Lines in Lucknow. (Express)

UNLIKE IN the past, not even a single organised criminal was roaming freely in the state now, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Wednesday. Adityanath was addressing policemen on the occasion of Police Commemoration Day in Lucknow.

A total of 125 criminals were killed and 2,607 injured in police encounters since his government came to power in 2017, the CM said in his speech after the Police Commemoration Day Parade at Police Lines. He lauded the different police departments in the state, such as the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), and claimed no terror-related incident had taken place in the state since April 2017 “because no terrorist organisation was let to set foot in UP”.

Paying tribute to the nine police personnel who died in the line of duty in 2019-20, Adityanath assured their families that the Uttar Pradesh Police have always been eager to take every step for their welfare and comfort and would continue doing so.

He said over the past year, Rs 26.95 crore was disbursed by the state government to the families of 122 police, central and paramilitary forces personnel and Army men hailing from the state who died in the line of duty. This includes Rs 1 crore to the families of each of those killed in a police operation in Bikru village of Kanpur, where eight policemen, including a Deputy SP died.

The CM said the state government has earmarked Rs 3 crore for the benefit of the state police personnel posted and Rs 4 crore for their welfare. To encourage police personnel in doing their duty, 12 police personnel were given the President’s Police Medal on Republic Day and Independence Day, and Police Medal was given to 144 non-gazetted police personnel. In addition to this, several names have been sent to the Union Home Ministry for the Utkrisht Sewa medal.

Adityanath said that to boost the confidence of the Uttar Pradesh Police and increase their efficiency and professional calibre, a “historic step” of completing the recruitment process for 49,568 police constable posts in the past one year has been completed. He said that strengthening the feeling of security among the common people by a better law and order situation and fear among the criminals was a “main policy” of the present government.

“The state government has a zero tolerance policy to crime and criminals. A total of 125 criminals have been killed and 2,607 were injured in police encounters from March 20 in 2017 to October 5 this year. In these operations, a total of 13 police personnel died and 988 were injured. At least 9,578 criminals were arrested in this time period. At present, there is not a single organised criminal who is roaming in the open. They are either in jail or were killed by the police in self-defence,” he said.

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