“We Will Reap Benefits In 2014”

When the Samajwadi Party came to power in 2012, the elevation of Akhilesh Yadav as Chief Minister came as a bit of a surprise to most – the vote after all was for his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. Presiding over a State cabinet that has many stalwarts – including some from the family – Akhilesh’s debut has been baptism by fire. Law and order has been a sore point in the State and he has been in the firing line for not being able to handle matters smoothly. In an interview with Anil Pandey and Avinash Mishra, the young CM says developmental projects, and law and order are his two main concerns

B&E: You are the youngest ever Chief Minister in India. How would your rate your experience in the past one year? Akhilesh Yadav (AY): When you think deeply, you think some good work has been done, but again, there are doubts. Maybe some things could have been done better. On a balanced note, we have done well. We have taken important decisions, results of which will be evident soon. We inherited a dysfunctional government which was more driven by motives of personal profit than overall gains and welfare of the State. So we had to reverse some of the programmes of the BSP government and that too in quick time. I took oath in March and the budget happened only by July, so we could not spend till then. But despite bad weather and other factors, we conducted a long assembly session.

B&E: What were the main challenges in your first year? AY: The biggest challenge was to fulfill the promises that we had made in our poll manifesto. I can say with confidence that we have achieved them. There are many big challenges ahead. No matter how hard you work and what you do, if law and order of the State is not under your control, then you have to give answers to your people.

B&E: You have been accused of not being able to control the worsening law and order situation in UP. What is your reaction? AY: The government is worried about law and order and we are taking steps to control it. One bad case can undo all the good work you have done. Crime, and law and order are two separate things and we are working to improve systems. Our effort is that cases be registered immediately so that culprits are sent behind bars. We have been successful in a number of cases but unfortunately, we never got the mileage that we should have got from the good work. I believe that the kind of image being portrayed in the media is incorrect. Equally, the behaviour and language of policemen many-a-time embarrasses the government. Old attitudes need to go and this needs to be worked on.

B&E: What steps have you taken to bring law and order into place in the State? AY: Our emphasis is to augment the capacity of the police force as well as modernise it. We are introducing a central GPRS system which will cut down on the police’s reaction time. We have started the ‘Dial 1090’ helpline for women who face harassment.
B&E: What have been your main achievements so far? AY: The biggest achievement of the SP government has been that we have won the confidence of our people. What we had mentioned in the manifesto, we have delivered. But some of our schemes – like the one to distribute laptops to students is path-breaking. A lot of people were cynical about our ability to do that, but we succeeded. The media too has been helpful. Our emphasis is on the social sector; we have spent more than 74% of our budget on farmers and poor workers. We have a new industrial policy in place, the mood is becoming investor-friendly and companies from Europe and US are keen to come and invest in UP. We have to take a decision on roads and highways too; no country can develop without proper infrastructure.