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LUCKNOW: On the backfoot over deterioration of law and order in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) after it came to power in March earlier this year, the Samajwadi Party (SP) government released crime stats in the state assembly claiming that between March 1 to April 15, only 699 cases of murder, 263 rape cases and 249 incidents of loot have taken place in the state. The figures were released on a query raised by Bhartiya Janta Party member of legislative assembly, Suresh Kumar Khanna.

The government also informed that between April 1, 2011, and November 30, 2011, around 3161 murders, 1164 rapes and 1831 incidents of loot took place in the state. Though the SP government had taken charge on March 15, it released figures of previous regime as well as that of first 15 days in the month of March to show that the rate of crime has not increased. It also stated that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has given strict instructions to maintain law and order. He has also issued warning of action against officers found to be lax in discharging their duties. The government claimed that law and order is under control and it will improve further in coming days.

The opposition parties, however, rejected government figures claiming that in many cases police does not register FIRs to keep crime rate down on papers.. They said that even if government stats are considered to be true, the per day average of murder in 45 days from March 1 to April 15 comes out to 15, rape to 6 and loot to 5.

Interestingly, the government data shows crime rate higher than the what Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati claimed at a press conference last month. Mayawati had then claimed that after SP came to power, between March 15 and May 24, 800 murders, 270 rapes, 256 kidnappings and 720 loots have taken place in the state. According to the figures quoted by Mayawati, average murders per day come out to be 11, 4 cases of rape and 10 cases of robbery.

If one takes into account the crime figures of 244 days from April 1 to November 30, per day murders come out to be 13, rape -- four and loot -- seven. This is also less than the average crime in SP regime.

Meanwhile, opposition’s allegation on breakdown of law and order seems to be true considering the fact that apart from increase in crime rate, there have been around 17 incidents in which police was assaulted by the criminals and mobs in different parts of the state. Around 19 ministers in SP government have criminal records. Durga Yadav, a minister, had recently created a controversy by saying that ’even God cannot control crime’.