Ballia/Jaunpur/Mau (UP): Warning officials against laxity in the implementation of welfare schemes, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said today that properties of those cheating the poor would be seized and they would be given compulsory retirement. "Laxity in extending help under various schemes to the poor and the needy will not be tolerated...the government will take stern action against whosoever is found cheating the poor," Adityanath said while campaigning for BJP nominees for the upcoming civic polls.

"We can seize the property of those taking away the rights of the poor and can even retire them compulsorily," Adityanth said. The BJP is taking the UP civic polls seriously as it wants to ensure that the benefits of government schemes reach the last man on the social ladder, he said. Attacking the SP and the BSP, he said that corruption was at its peak during the past 15 years when the two parties governed the state alternately, and all works in the civic bodies were decided from Lucknow.

"In the last 15 years, the previous governments had confined themselves to casteism (jaativaad) and dynastic politics (parivaarwaad). But, in 2014 and 2017, the BJP proved that the party is not synonymous with casteist and dynastic politics. We are a government which believes in development, and every promise made in the 'Sankalp Patra' will be implemented on ground, and the promises will not remain confined to papers only," Adityanath said.

The chief minister said his government has given a free hand to the police to deal with criminal elements and those hobnobbing with criminals will be identified and taken to task. Addressing an election rally in Mau, he said, "In the eight months of the BJP government in the state, there has not been a single incident of communal violence. No mafia gang is able assert itself today, and the people of the state have started heaving a sigh of relief." He urged the people to vote in favour of the BJP and ensure the formation of the BJP-led urban local bodies so that people from all walks of life and strata can avail the benefits of schemes of the government. (PTI)