UP worst state in India in terms of law and order; 1.8 lakh cops for 20 crore people

NEW DELHI: UP holds the dubious distinction of being the worst state in India in terms of law and order, the sheer volume of violent crimes over the past decade suggests. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) analysed by ET also shows that worryingly enough change of government has had little impact on the crime rate in the state.

Under Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of SP, the number of violent crimes touched a high of 33,824 incidents in 2012, including nearly 2,000 rapes and 4,966 murders. However, the situation was scarcely less scary in the previous year, when BSP leader Mayawati led the government and the number of violent crimes reported was 32,987 including a similar count of rapes and murders.

The country’s most populous state, which is bursting at the seams with 20 crore people and just 1.8 lakh police personnel to guard them, is also beset with paltry and outdated policing resources stretched thin over its humongous 2.5 lakh-square kilometre area, leaving large sections of population vulnerable to horrific crimes like the recent rape and murder of two minor girls in Badaun that attracted international condemnation.

In the first year of Mayawati’s regime in 2007, violent crimes numbered around 27,000 and as many as 5,000 murders were reported. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav may have berated his son for his failure to contain the crime rate but the situation was little different during his tenure as CM in 2004, when nearly as many violent crimes were reported including the highest number of 6,126 murders in the state in a year.

"This amplifies that the problem has more to do with the archaic police systems and bureaucratic inertia in UP under consecutive regimes. Cutting-edge level postings are still done on caste basis, irrespective of whether SP or BSP is in power," a senior MHA official told ET.

With police postings based on caste, culprits of the same caste feel emboldened and commit crimes with brazenness, as in the Badaun case, said Prakash Singh, a former DGP of UP. "The accused think they can get away as the chief minister and the police head are of their caste. For the last 12 years, both BSP and SP have destroyed police systems in UP and run the state like their fiefdom."

Several states such as Haryana, Punjab and Maharashtra have adopted commissionerate systems to police their cities. But UP has not even thought on these lines to improve its policing, even as its urban centres like Meerut, Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Ghaziabad and Lucknow report the highest number of crimes, a top MHA official said.

SP leaders like Ram Gopal Yadav and Shivpal Yadav have, however, stressed that considering the population of UP, the state’s crime rate is still lower than that of many other states.