Tag: Uttar Pradesh

UP, Bihar at bottom of India’s justice league.

Source – indiatoday.in

Law and order has always been a major concern in the two big states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Despite claims of improvement over the years by respective state leaderships, a recent report by Tata Trusts has statistically proven that these two states have the worst justice system in India.

The study, titled India Justice Report’, which Tata Trusts published on Thursday, developed an index of justice system across the country using four parameters police, prisons, judiciary and legal aid. An assessment of 18 bigger states revealed that UP and Bihar have the worst justice system in India. While UP ranked at the bottom of the list, Bihar stood at number 17.

On the basis of these parameters, a score was allotted to each state on a scale of 10. None of the states had the perfect score. UP and Bihar got a score of 3.32 and 4.02 respectively. Following them from the bottom were Jharkhand (4.3), Uttarakhand (4.49), Rajasthan (4.52) and Andhra Pradesh (4.77).

The state with the best justice system according to the report is Maharashtra with a score of 5.92. It is followed by Kerala (5.85), Tamil Nadu (5.76), Punjab (5.53) and Haryana (5.53).

The average score of all the bigger states turned out to be 4.95, which means more than 50 per cent conditions to get a perfect score for the justice system have not been met. In fact, of the 18 big states surveyed, 11 had a score of above 5.

Collectively, the data paints a grim picture. It highlights that each individual sub-system is starved for budgets, manpower and infrastructure; no state is fully compliant with the standards it has set for itself. Governments are content to create ad hoc and patchwork remedies to cure deeply embedded systemic failures. Inevitably, the burden of all this falls on the public, the report says.

Why UP, Bihar rank at the bottom

A deeper look at the statistics reveals that in almost every aspect, UP and Bihar exchanged the last and second last position.

Policing

The study took several factors to assess the police system in the states, ranging from modernisation, inducing women, diversity, budgeting, human resource planning and infrastructure.

On this front, the best score was achieved by Tamil Nadu 6.49. UP received a score of 2.98, whereas Bihar got 3.77. UP fared poor in terms of budgeting, spending on police per person, vacancies and diversity.

Prisons

This parameter was assessed on various factors ranging from overcrowding, inclusion of women staff, adequate human resources, budgeting, infrastructure, etc.

Jharkhand fared the worst with a score of 3.46. It was followed by Uttarakhand (3.72), Punjab (4.35), Andhra Pradesh (4.35) and UP (4.42). Surprisingly, Bihar stood at number six with a score of 5.61. The best in this regard was Kerala with a score of 7.18.

Judiciary

This parameter was assessed on availability of judges, clearance of cases, spending on judiciary, etc.

Bihar, with a score of 2.41, fared the worst in this regard. It was followed by UP (3.7), Karnataka (3.76), Uttarakhand (4.17) and Jharkhand (4.3). Tamil Nadu again featured on the top in terms of judiciary with a score of 6.99. It was followed by Punjab (6.57), Haryana (6.23) and Maharashtra (5.96).

On an average, Bihar saw a bleak growth in expenditure on judiciary in comparison to total spending. From 2011 to 2016, the state expenditure rose by 17.8 per cent; however, expenditure on judiciary rose by only 8 per cent.

Legal aid

The report also highlighted the importance of legal aid. It said that almost 80 per cent of India’s 1.25-billion population is eligible for free legal aid, but only 15 million people have availed it since 1995.

Here too, the parameter was assessed on the basis of budgeting, human resources, diversity, infrastructure and work load. With a score of 2.5, UP fared worst, followed by Uttarakhand (4.46), Bihar (4.52) and Odisha (4.61).

14 die in rain-related incidents in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh

Source: indiatoday.in

Fourteen people, including a minor, were killed in rain-related incidents in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, while the Assam floods claimed one more life on Thursday.

The northern parts of the country received light to heavy rains, with the MeT Department saying rainfall activity has increased over central India, Northern Plains and Western Himalayan region since Wednesday.

Uttar Pradesh received traces of rainfall and state capital Lucknow recorded a high of 31.1 degrees Celsius on Thursday. However, nine people died in rain-related incidents across the state in the past three days. Meerut received 100.6 mm of rainfall, followed by Bareilly, which recorded 50.0 mm of rainfall.

Due to heavy rains recorded in parts of Rajasthan, three people, including a 15-year-old boy, were swept away in water in Shekhawati region. Parts of the state received rainfall from 7 cm to 15 cm. Didwana of Nagaur recorded 15 cm rainfall, followed by 13 cm each in Sadulpur, Bassi, Sikar, 11 cm each in Bhuhana and Phagi, 10 cm each Chirawa, Neem Ka Thana.

Three more deaths due to lightning strikes were reported in Jharkhand, taking the

death toll in the state to 15. On Wednesday, 12 people were killed by lightning in four districts of the state – six in Jamtara and two each in Dumka, Pakur and Ramgarh.

With the death of one more person, the toll in Assam floods reached 75 on Thursday as more than 34 lakh people remain affected by the deluge in 18 districts of the state, officials said.

Due to the release of excess water from the Kuricchu Hydropower reservoirs in Kuricchu River in Bhutan, western Assam districts of Barpeta, Nalbari, Baksa, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri and South Salmara are facing rise in flood water level. However, water level receded in some other districts of the state on Thursday.

In Bihar, no fresh deaths were reported as flood water entered state’s West Champaran, taking the total number of flood-hit districts in the state to 13. The death toll remained unchanged at 123. The state Disaster Management Department said relief and rehabilitation work was in full swing as 82.12 lakh people are affected by the deluge in 13 districts.

Light to heavy rains lashed most parts of Himachal Pradesh, dropping the maximum temperatures by several notches below normal limits on Thursday, the Meteorological (MeT) Department said.

In Punjab and Haryana, light to moderate rains lashed most places, plummeting the maximum temperatures between two to seven notches below normal in the region.

Narnaul received 54 mm of rainfall, followed by 16 mm in Amritsar, 14 mm in Ludhiana, 12.4 mm in Chandigarh, four mm in Ambala, two mm in Patiala and 0.5 mm in Hisar, it said here.

There was some respite for people from hot and humid weather in Kashmir as

heavy rainfall in lashed most parts of the Valley, even as the downpour affected normal life in Srinagar leading to waterlogging in many city roads.

The Mughal Road and the Doda-Kishtwar highway were closed for traffic due to landslides triggered by heavy rains in Jammu region.

However, in Delhi, vast stretches of the city remained dry, in a departure from the weather department’s forecast of ‘very heavy’ rains in the national capital. On Wednesday, the India Meteorological Department had issued a red alert warning for Delhi.

IMD officials said the weather stations at Palam, Lodhi Road, Ridge and Ayanagar recorded traces of rainfall. The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides official figures for the city, recorded nil precipitation.

Several parts of Odisha were lashed by rains due to a cyclonic circulation over the Bay of Bengal, giving much needed relief to the farmers hit by deficit rainfall.

Missing bullets from UP making way to gangs in Jharkhand and Bihar

Source: indiatoday.in

In a shocking revelation, made by a senior police official following the story published by India Today on June 24, 2019 regarding crores of missing pistol and rifle bullets from UP, it is being said that the missing bullets are being sold in the ammunition black markets of Bihar and Jharkhand apart from Uttar Pradesh.

The revelation also mentioned that a sudden spurt in firearm-based crimes is due to these missing bullets.

The UP DGP OP Singh instructed all the district police officials in UP to conduct a full physical verification of each and every bullet issued to the licensed firearm bearers.

The state police’s crime wing will be investigating the case of missing bullets now.

Following the report from the crime wing, the police officials in all the districts will be given further instructions.

FIREARM-BASED CRIMES IN UTTAR PRADESH

Most cases of firearm-based crimes are being committed in Uttar Pradesh by criminals, according to the information available with India Today.

According to the statistics from the police headquarters, there are around 1,00 murders committed in Uttar Pradesh every year using firearms and most of these firearms are illegally produced and obtained.

Since it is easy to manufacture a firearm but it is near impossible to produce a decent bullet without an elaborate factory setup, the bullets for these illegal weapons are sourced from the licensed firearm bearers and ammunition dealers, who fudge their records to show that the bullets have gone missing or have been utilised.

JHARKHAND AND BIHAR

Similar is the case of Jharkhand and Bihar, where 800-1,000 murders are committed every year using illegal weapons.

THE RAIDS

In the past Lok Sabha polls, the UP police had raided 240 illegal weapon factories.

It is clear that all these weapons require bullets to be of any use.

In Uttar Pradesh, there are several lakh licensed weapon holders who have never faced an audit of the bullets they have in possession or have used so far.

TRACING THE BULLETS

A retired police official told India Today that the logistics wing of the police should be instructed to ensure that every firearm cartridge is numbered.

If this provision is brought into effect, the cases of murders from firearms will see a steep drop in numbers as each cartridge will then be traceable to the person who got it issued from the firearm dealer.

Social activist and Hindustani Biradari Vice-Chairman Vishal Sharma said that licensed weapons have become more of a status symbol these days and most weapon bearers do not even have the training to use the weapon when needed.

Vishal Sharma said, “Uttar Pradesh is at the top in the country when it comes to the number of licensed firearms, with Jammu and Kashmir coming second.”

While licensed weapons are a necessity in Jammu and Kashmir due to terrorism, UP does not have that big a threat to the lives of common citizens to warrant such a huge number of firearm licenses.

Vishal Sharma expressed surprise that when one licensed weapon holder can only have a maximum of 200 cartridges in a year and only keep 100 at a time, with a requirement to produce at least 80 per cent of the spent shells to the dealer, then how such a huge number of cartridges disappeared from the city’s firearm holders.

BULLETS AND BLACK MARKETS

Agra SSP Joginder Kumar told India Today that licensed weapon holders could now be subjected to random surveillance by the Local Intelligence Units of the police to ensure that they are not selling the cartridges in the black market.

WHO’S GOT WHAT

Joginder Kumar said that Lucknow tops the state’s districts in the number of licensed weapons at 53,033 weapons, Agra comes a close second at 47,102 weapons, Bareilly has 45,896 weapon bearers, Prayagraj has 45,841, while Kanpur (City) has 39,095 licensed weapon holders.

There are five states in India whose total number of licensed weapons are lower than the licensed weapons held by either of these five districts of UP.

Delhi has 38,754 licensed weapons, Tamil Nadu has 22,532, Assam has 19,283, Odisha has 20,588, while Kerala has just 9,459 licensed weapons.