Police authority has to be maintained: CM Yogi Adityanath

“Aur jis din police ka iqbal bana rahega, aap mein se har jawan ki har adhikari ka samman bhi bana rahega (And till the police force is able to maintain its authority, every cop and their superiors will continue to be respected),” he added.

This comes a day after, the chief minister faced off with Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav in the Assembly where he accused the SP of sheltering “criminals” and “mafia”and said he would destroy the mafia(“iss mafia ko mitti mein mila denge”).

Addressing the event Sunday, the CM said that Uttar Pradesh’s image of has changed since he came to power in the state.

“Six years ago, our youths had to hide their identity outside Uttar Pradesh. The fault was not with the land but with the system. Today, people from the state’s 75 districts can proudly take the name of their district,” he said.

This is the same Uttar Pradesh where investors once shut their businesses and left the state, the chief minister claimed. “There were mass migrations from towns like Kairana and Kandhla… Kairana wore a deserted look before 2017, but now malls are being developed. This has become possible because of safety… When common man, traders and children say they feel safe and have trust in the police, then it should be accepted that we are in the right direction,” the CM added.

Claiming that delegates who visited Lucknow recently for the Global Investors Summit and G20 events appreciated the behaviour of the police, the CM said: “When there is no misbehaviour with any guest and citizen, people do not get stuck in traffic jams and there is no place for any kind of anarchy and hooliganism.”

Adityanath said in the past six years, his government has been on “mission employment” and gave government jobs to over 5.5 lakh youths, out of which more than 1.60 lakh people were recruited in the police force.

In 2017, the training capacity of the police force was only 6,000, which has increased three times now, he said. Claiming that there were more than 1.5 lakh vacancies in the police force and over 54 companies of PAC were abolished before he formed the government in 2017, he said: “All 54 PAC battalions have been reconstituted. Vacancies in the police force have been filled through transparent recruitment… Today, fire brigades are equipped with advanced equipment.”

Meanwhile, Adityanath also asked the selected candidates to upgrade their skills and knowledge of technology to deal with new-age crimes. “We will be able to control criminals only when we will think 10 steps ahead of them. To prevent cybercrime, the government has set up cyber police stations and helpdesks in 18 ranges”, he said.