With the dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey, the main accused in the Kanpur encounter case, on the run after allegedly opening fire on a police team which came to arrest him on July 2, the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh has once again been exposed. Taking advantage, Congress' General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has targetted the Yogi Adityanath Government.
"UP accounts for 56% of the total illegal weapons cases in the entire country," Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi. "Cases of cyber crimes increased by 138% in UP between 2016-2018," she added.
"The UP government is working to juggle these figures instead of taking action by taking cognizance of them. How will crime be reduced?" she asked citing National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.
Meanwhile, the UP government on Wednesday released crime figures based on the NCRB data to prove that the crime situation in the state is 'satisfactory'.
According to the government spokesman, the NCRB data for the year 2018 shows that despite having 17 per cent population of the country, the crime rate in the state was just 10 per cent.
The government also compared the figures of murders, crime against women and children, and crime against Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes of Uttar Pradesh with the rest of India.
The rate of murders in Uttar Pradesh is 1.8 per lakh population, far below the national average of 2.2 per lakh population in 2018.
The state also has a lower murder rate than Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Similarly, crime against women in Uttar Pradesh is 55.7 per lakh population, less than the national average of 58.8 in 2018 and fares better than Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Assam.
In crime against children, Uttar Pradesh's rate of 22.5 per lakh population is less than national average of 31.8 and also lower than Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
The crime rate as per the NCRB shows police has improved law and order in Uttar Pradesh in comparison to other states having a higher population density.
(With IANS inputs)
