UP better than many other parts of country: Akhilesh

Even as rape incidents continue in his state, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday claimed that the situation was ‘good’ and ‘better’ than many other parts of the country.

Yadav, who has been under all-round attack, insisted that officials have been instructed to take stern action against the culprits and reach the incident spot first which will ensure that no politics is played.

‘It (law and order situation) is good in UP and better than in many other states... That is why they (investors) have come in such large numbers,’ he told reporters here after attending Investors’ Conclave organised by UP.

Be it any government, it has to continuously work on law and order and his government too was working to improve matters, he said.

He said that the ‘big’ participation by investors at the meet was evidence that the law and order situation was alright in UP.

‘Whenever somebody asks me about this (law and order), I say it is a very important subject and it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that it remains in good condition,’ Yadav said.

‘I called officials few days back and said that in any incident that happens, you have to take stern action and you have to reach the spot before anybody else. If the officials reach the spot, then neither will there be any politics nor news...’ he said.

Yadav refrained from answering queries on whether politics is being played on the issue.

Earlier, big investors signed MoUs with UP at the Conclave. Among them were Essel Group, which has a multi sectoral proposition such as urban development, power distribution and solar transmission, with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore while Reliance Jio proposed an investment of Rs 5,000 crore for implementation of 4G network.

ITC, Amity, Fortis Sonalika and others also signed MoU during the occasion. UP has planned to organise a series of national as well as international investor conclave leading to Global Investor’s Summit in 2015. This was the first such investor conclave.

Wooing the investors, Yadav said that signing of so many MoUs shows that UP will move ahead towards road to properity.

The investors’ summit is also an opportunity to tell the people that whatever be the propaganda about UP, the state is attracting investment, he said, adding that it is his government’s responsibility to address law and order issues.

‘Had we not worked, not provided 24-hour power for industry and created infrastructure, then MoUs worth so much money would not have been signed,’ Yadav said.

Terming the turnout of large number of investors as the new beginning, Yadav said there were many industries who had been working in UP for the last many years and said that many such industries had come when the Mulayam Singh government had come out with the industrial policy.

‘I can assure you that the work that has been started, it will not stop and I will give time as much as I can, meet each one in person and bring out solutions,’ he said.

He maintained that as far as investments were concerned, whenever there has been an SP govt, it has tried to increase investments in state and whether it was the Mulayam Singh government, its decisions, experiments all were to increase investment.