Jails during Mayawati regime not safe: Raja Bhaiya

Alleging the jails during the previous Mayawati government were not "safe", Uttar Pradesh Prison and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya said violent incidents would not be allowed during the Samajwadi Party regime.

"During the Mayawati regime, prisons were not safe as incidents of murder and suicide had become a common thing", Raja Bhaiyaa said talking to reporters at the residence of Minister of State for Rural Development Arvind Singh Gope.

The minister claimed that during the present SP regime, jails would be made safe and incidents like murder and suicide would not be allowed. During the BSP regime, an accused in NRHM scam, deputy chief medical officer YS Sachan, had died inside the Lucknow district jail in June last year, he said.

Stating recruitments would be made soon to meet the shortage of jail guards, Bhaiyaa said, Kaushambi and Balrampur jails would be made operational soon.

Referring to wheat purchase, he said, the government has fixed the support price at Rs 1285 per quintal and the farmers would not have to sell their produce to middlemen.