Lucknow, Feb 18: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said that his government would run bulldozers over those who have come out during the assembly elections if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retains power in the state. Addressing a rally in Mainpuri, Adiyanath claimed that a senior Samajwadi Party leader had reminded him about the government’s inability to run bulldozers on properties of criminals during the elections.
“We will use bulldozers after 10th March (election results day) for all those who were hiding for the last four and a half years but have come out during the elections,” the BJP leader said.
This election season, Adityanath has been frequently boasting about his government’s policy of running bulldozers over illegally-acquired properties of criminals and sending recovery notices to protesters involved in the destruction of public and private properties. Adityanath said that he asked the SP leader to not worry about bulldozers as the machines “also need some rest” and have been sent for repair work.
Presenting his government’s report card on the five-year term, Yogi Adiyanath said that no riots occurred during his rule, and criminals were put behind bars in an unprecedented manner. He also highlighted the peaceful Kanwar Yatras over these years as a major achievement of the BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh.
While Adiyanath was flaunting his recovery policy, the Supreme Court directed the UP government to refund crores of rupees recovered from protesters against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant said the state government will refund the entire amount recovered from the protesters. The court, however, allowed the government to initiate proceedings under the Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Property Act, the new law notified on August 31, 2020.