Law and order in Punjab: Hayer hits back at Shah, says crime rate in Punjab much lesser than UP, Haryana

Addressing a press conference, Meet Hayer said, that the BJP has been unnerved by the growing popularity of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat and is resorting to different tactics.

Cabinet minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer on Wednesday hit back at Union home minister Amit Shah’s statement decrying law and order in Punjab, accusing him of defaming the state to gain political mileage in Gujarat elections.

Addressing a press conference here, Meet Hayer said that the BJP has been unnerved by the growing popularity of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat and is resorting to cheap tactics. “Crime rate is far better in Punjab as compared to many BJP ruling states, including Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,” he claimed. Union home minister Amit Shah, in an interview to a TV channel, expressed concerns about the law and order situation in Punjab, especially after the AAP came to power.

Rejecting Shah’s statement, the Punjab minister said that law and order situation is intact in the border state and the state government under the leadership of chief minister Bhagwant Mann is working dedicatedly to eradicate mafia and gangster culture, which was patronized by successive governments during their decade-old regimes. “Under this drive, as many as 402 gangsters have been arrested, and 363 weapons have been recovered after AAP formed the state government in the state,” he said.

Meet Hayer cautioned the opposition leaders to not run calumnious campaigns against the AAP government, stating that according to the NCRB report related to cases of violence in the country from 2018 to 2021, Punjab ranked 15th in the number of cases of gun/explosive related violence among the states of the country far behind Haryana and Rajasthan.

He said that Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan top three states with highest gun violence cases in the country. From 2018 to 2021, 134958 cases of gun violence were registered in Uttar Pradesh, 57653 in Madhya Pradesh and 27193 in Rajasthan. While only 1820 cases of gun violence were reported in Punjab as against 8759 cases of gun violence in Haryana in the same span. Claiming that most sharpshooters whose names had come up in recent killings in Punjab belonged to Haryana, Meet Hayer said that in the last four years, cases of gun violence in Haryana are increasing five times faster than in Punjab. “Singers use guns and pistols in many Haryanvi songs but still Punjab is blamed for spreading gun culture,” he said coming down hard on neighbouring Haryana.

©Hindustan Times