Priyanka Gandhi Hits Out At UP Government Over Crimes Against Women

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Tuesday that it is "shameful" Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states in cases of crimes against women. 

Priyanka Gandhi, who is in her mother Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli to attend a three-day party meet, told reporters that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should do something to address the matter.

"The state is at the top in crime against women. It is shameful and the chief minister must do something about it," she said.

In a tweet later, the Congress leader said, "The highest number of crimes against women in the country is in UP. More than 56,000 a year and this does not include incidents that are not reported. Is this data not serious enough for the chief minister to take cognisance."

Priyanka Gandhi's comments came in the backdrop of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2017 released on Monday that stated that the maximum number of crimes against women was registered in Uttar Pradesh.

According to the data, over 3.5 lakh cases of crime against women were registered in the country, of which the maximum cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh (56,011), which is also the country's most populous state.

Refuting the claims made by Priyanka Gandhi, UP cabinet minister and government spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh Singh said the opposition is "manipulating" the NCRB data. "The opposition especially Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Akhilesh Yadav are trying to derive political mileage without proper study of it."