SP, BSP walkout from UP Council over law and order issue

Opposition SP and BSP members today staged a walkout from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council expressing dissatisfaction over the government's reply over the law-and-order situation in the state.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Leader of the Opposition Ahmed Hasan said, "In the 100 days of the BJP's rule, 1,229 cases of murder, 1,321 incidents of rape and 1,201 incidents of dacoity have been reported."
"Crime has increased almost four-fold in the state. Uttar Pradesh at this point of time has become Crime Pradesh," he said.
Countering his allegation, Leader of the House and Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said, "During the Samajwadi Party rule, no cases were registered. When the cases were not registered, it boosted the morale of the criminals.

"The BJP government has made provision of online registration of complaints. When cases are being registered, the number will go up," he said.
The legislators also protested levying of electricity charges to government schools at commercial rate.

To this, state Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma assured the House that the government will look into the matter seriously.
"The government will seriously deliberate over the proposal that electricity bill of secondary schools should not be levied at commercial rates.
"There are over 1.5 lakh primary schools, of which there is no provision of electricity in 60,000 such schools. The effort of the government is to make available electricity in all the government schools by October 2017," the minister said.

Some members also raised the issue of "bad behaviour" they reportedly face at various toll plazas in the state.
Earlier in the day, members condoled the death of seven Amarnath pilgrims in Anantnag district and observed two- minutes silence.