Claiming improvement in law and order situation, the Uttar Pradesh government said that over 69,000 crimes against women were registered in the last 20 months and case disposal rate in the state was over 97 per cent, which was at seventh place in the country.
Answering a question raised by Pankaj Malik and Jagdish Narayan during question hour, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in a written reply that between March 15, 2020 and December 2022, 69,057 cases of crime against women were registered and out of these, 4,026 were cases of heist, 738 of robbery, 6,538 of rape and 6,538 cases of female harassment.
He said planned action had been taken against the criminals involved in the incidents of loot and dacoity in the state, and the action included confiscation of property under the Gangster Act, Goonda Act and Section 14(1) of the Gangster Act. He said scientific methods were used for evidence collection, foot and finger prints, detection of location of the accused at the time of the incident, CCTV footage, seizure of articles left by the accused at the time of the incident.
“In district Lucknow, a large 'UP-112' call centre has been established as the state level Central Master Coordination Centre, which is continuously achieving the objective of providing immediate police assistance in the entire area of the state,” he said.
The government said that foot patrolling was being done in congested areas every day for 60 minutes in the state and police patrolling was being implemented effectively at the time of opening and closing around banks, bullion shops etc.
“At present, one of the important priorities of the Uttar Pradesh government is the prevention of crimes related to children and women and to punish the criminals involved in these crimes by completing the investigations at a speedy pace. The progress is continuously reviewed by the Government of India's Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offenses (ITSSO) portal,” he said.
“In the month of August 2022, the state of Uttar Pradesh was at the seventh place in the disposal of these complaints, in which Uttar Pradesh, with a disposal rate of 97.61 percent, disposed of 74,600 cases against the total of 76,459 cases registered through continuous efforts on the basis of priority,” he said.
He said a total of 162 fast track courts and 218 exclusive POCSO courts had been set up by the present government for speedy trial in crimes against women. “The conviction rate of crimes against women in Uttar Pradesh is 59.1 per cent, which is 123 per cent higher than the national average,” he said.
“For the safety and respect of women, the Women and Child Protection Organisation has been established and a special campaign, Mission Shakti, is being run. Women's help desks have been established at all the police stations of the state and 10,378 women's beats have been created. Strict action is being taken against those who molest women by forming Anti Romeo squads in districts. With this the Women Power Line 1090 is functional on which women are getting their complaints registered without any hesitation and with confidence,” he said and added that instructions had been given to take action against crime and criminals in the state on the principle of 'zero tolerance'.
Answering another question asked by Mehboob Ali of Samajwadi Party, the government claimed that Rs 275.72 crore and Rs 398.87 crore had been sanctioned to hospitals for the treatment of patients from the Chief Minister's discretionary fund in the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively.
In the financial year 2020-21 and 2021-22, due to death of the patient, change of hospital by the patient, remaining amount for the expenditure out of the sanctioned amount for treatment, the amount of Rs 23.07 crore and Rs 25.87 crore was returned by the hospitals respectively.