Senior BJP leader negates CM Yogi’s claims that women are safe in UP

In a scathing comment on the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, senior BJP leader and former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya has advised women in the state to avoid visiting police stations after dusk.

While addressing women in Bajardiha area of Varanasi, parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Baby Rani Maurya said that women should not go to police stations after 5 p.m. They should wait till the next day and then visit the police station accompanied by male relatives.

Maurya is also a national vice-president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The statement came at the backdrop of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s claims that law and order in the state has improved and now women feel very safe. He added that women help desks have been set up at every police station that are manned by an SI-rank woman officer, thus giving confidence to women to lodge their complaints.

Maurya insisted that although women help desks have been set up at police stations, but still women should avoid going to a police station after 5 p.m.

Recently, several incidents of harassment of women by police personnel have been reported in the state. Sample this:

• On July 8 this year, a Samajwadi Party woman activist was harassed in a police station in Kheri following which all the officials of that police station were suspended.

• On July 19, a woman lodged complained in Kanpur Dehat that she was subjected to inhuman treatment by police when she had gone there to lodge a complaint.

• A women lodged a complaint of obscene behaviour by police when she went to Vikas Nagar police station in Lucknow to lodge a complaint. The action was taken against three police officers including a Sub-Inspector.

Meanwhile, Maurya’s comments have given fresh fodder to the opposition’s cannon. The opposition has been raising the issue of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

“What we have been saying has been justified by the senior BJP leader,” Congress leader Amarnath Agarwal said. “The BJP government may camouflage its failure through a glitter of advertisements but the fact is law and order is really bad and people are facing the brunt,” he said.