Stressing that women's safety continued to be the priority of his government, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that his government brought policies to protect the lives of women and instill confidence among the fairer sex so that the infamous incidents of Budaun, wherein two teenage girls were raped and murdered, was not repeated in Uttar Pradesh.
“Earlier, women were afraid of going out in the state as they felt unsafe. Since coming to power in the state in 2017, our government primarily worked for the protection of women by initiating 'Anti-Romeo' squad. We recruited 1.5 lakh police officers, of which 20 per cent were assigned the task of women's safety,” the chief minister said while launching 359 development projects worth Rs 1,328 crore in Budaun on Tuesday.
Addressing the public, Yogi mentioned that over 50 projects worth Rs 1,118 crore had been inaugurated while the foundation stones of more than 146 projects costing Rs 211 crore had been laid.
“It has been the intention of the government from day one that development projects should be completed in a time-bound manner, ensuring quality of work. The atmosphere of development in the state will become the reason for transformation in the life of the common man,” he said.
Lashing out at the previous Samajwadi Party government for promoting illegal slaughterhouses and cattle smuggling, the chief minister said that bovine smuggling had always been a major issue in Uttar Pradesh.
“We shut down illegal slaughterhouses to curb cattle smuggling completely. Not only this, the law and order situation in the state was worrisome in earlier years. There used to be frequent riots during festivals, curfew used to be imposed and people could not celebrate festivals. Now, no riots have taken place in Uttar Pradesh in the last four and a half years. The situation has now changed. Be it Diwali, Dhanteras, Govardhan Puja or Bhaiya Dooj, the festivals were celebrated in every district of the state in a peaceful manner with gaiety,” he said.
“Besides, the government’s zero-tolerance policy towards crimes and criminals is bearing results. On one hand, UP has come to the forefront as a riot-free, crime-free state, while on the other, UP has also set an example in taking action against mafias who thrived under political patronage,” Yogi added.
The chief minister reiterated that following in the footsteps of the Centre which provided free rations for people till Diwali, the UP government would extend this benefit till Holi. "Under the free ration scheme, 35 kg of food grains, 1 kg of pulses, 1 kg of cooking oil, 1 kg of sugar, and 1 kg of salt shall be provided, depending on the number of family members,” he said.
Highlighting the pro-farmer schemes of the government, Yogi said that it was under the present regime that 86 lakh farmers were given loan waiver of Rs 36,000 crore.
“The Hudhud cyclone had hit in 2015, but till March 2017, farmers did not get the compensation during the previous Samajwadi Party regime. In October this year, due to heavy rains, crops and properties were damaged. Our government has provided Rs 5.50 lakh crore as relief to the affected farmers,” he reminded.