Improve law and order in 15 days: UP CM to top cops

With the Governor TV Rajeswar blasting the state police for the deteriorating law and order situation, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday directed the IPS officers to pull up socks to improve the situation.

While the chief minister had strongly rebutted the charges of the governor on Thursday, during the closed-door meeting of the police officers in Lucknow on Friday Yadav directed the officers to improve the situation within 15 days.

Later at a separate meeting of IGs and DIGs, the chief minister again laid emphasis on the improvement in the situation. However, talking to newsmen the chief minister reiterated that the law and order was better than any Congress-ruled states. He said a commission headed by a Supreme Court judge could be constituted to ascertain that the UP situation was far better than Mumbai and Delhi.

While directing the officers to take action against criminals, the chief minister also asked the police to improve its image. He said efforts should be made to win over the faith of the people. The chief minister announced the construction of a police auditorium for conferences. He expressed satisfaction over the peaceful local bodies elections. At the IPS Association meeting the chief minister accepted the demand of promotion of the 1985 batch to IG and 1991 batch to DIG ranks.

However, he was non-committal about the demand of promotion of the 1974 batch to DG rank. DGP Bua Singh said Naxal activities had been controlled and the crime graph had decreased. Chief secretary NC Bajpai asked the officers to be sensitive towards junior officers. He said the force should also be given proper training in the use of modern weapons.

Meanwhile the IPS Association on Friday re-elected DG Homeguards and Civil Defense VKB Nair as president. Other executive committee members are: OPS Malik (vice president), Subhash Chandra (secretary), VK Singh (joint secretary), NK Singh, Anil Mishra, VK Gupta and ASP Lucknow (all committee members). 

Email Masoodul Hasan: mhasan@hindustantimes.com