Even as the ruling Samajwadi Party targeted its political opponents for tarnishing the image of the Akhilesh Yadav Government on the law and order situation in UP, the Bharatiya Janata Party further sharpened its attack on the Chief Minister saying that his review meetings were proving to be non-starters.
BJP state spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said in a statement here on Monday that the law and order in the state was deteriorating day by day.
“After all, when will the Akhilesh Yadav Government accord priority to checking the spiralling crime graphIJ” he asked.
In a quick retort to BJP’s allegations, senior minister and SP state spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said the law and order was completely under control.
“Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has taken a serious view and made it clear that no laxity will be tolerated in checking crime. Besides taking immediate action, the Chief Minister has issued directives to senior police officers to immediately visit the scene of crime and take swift action,” he added.
Chaudhary said the Chief Minister had personally conducted surprise inspections in order to tone up the administrative set-up.
“It is unfortunate the SP’s rivals are continuously issuing statements to tarnish the image of the Chief Minister,”, Chaudhary said.
He pointed out that the erstwhile Bahujan Samaj Party Government was ousted mainly because of the poor law and order that then prevailed. He wondered how BJP leader Uma Bharti was toeing the line of BSP chief Mayawati in issuing warning to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Training his guns at the rival parties, Chaudhary remarked: “Those who are tarnishing the image of the state Government are virtually insulting the voters who voted the Samajwadi Party to power with majority in the Vidhan Sabha election.”
Moreover, he said, taking into consideration the national rate of crime, at least 21 states were ahead of Uttar Pradesh so far crime was concerned.
However, Pathak said ever since the formation of the Akhilesh Yadav Government an atmosphere of uncertainty prevailed in the state. He said one of the main reasons for this was that there were several power centres due to which the ministers had become carefree, the bureaucracy was misled and the ruling party workers were undisciplined.
“How is it that from day one, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has kept a tab on all the ministers in the UP Government whereas Akhilesh Yadav is oblivious of what they doIJ” he asked.