Uttar Pradesh Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said that opposition parties were spreading canard against the state government because they were unable to digest the development done by the Yogi Adityanath government in such a short time.

“Crime is under control and its testimony is the interest shown by entrepreneurs in investing in Uttar Pradesh. There is improvement in infrastructure like power and electricity. The opposition parties have not seen such development during their tenures and therefore they are spreading lies about the government,” Sharma said in a statement issued here on Friday.

He was reacting to the anti-government protests held in the last two days. On Thursday, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) led by Shivpal Singh Yadav had held protest in the state capital while Samajwadi Party staged state-wide demonstrations against the government on Friday. Both protests focused on law and order situation.

Sharma, who is also the government spokesman, said that in the last two years, UP had received investments amounting to over Rs 1,25,000 crore which was more than the investments in the state in the last 10 years. 

“The Yogi government signed MoUs of Rs 4.68 lakh crore of which foundation stones of 81 projects worth Rs 60,000 crore were laid in July 2018 and a year later, in 2019, projects worth Rs 65,000 crore were initiated. This is a clear indication that Uttar Pradesh has emerged as an investment destination for the entrepreneurs,” he said.

Sharma said that the previous governments of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party were corrupt and they used to give shelter to criminals. “In our rule, criminals are either being eliminated or sent to jail. Such is the terror of police that 16,165 criminals have cancelled their bails and surrendered before the police,” he said.

The minister said, “People know that only BJP can give good governance and therefore they gave a huge mandate to the party in panchayat as well as in Lok sabha elections,” he said.