Yadavs in UP Police dropping surnames to avoid harassment

Bareilly: The ‘Yadavization’ of Uttar Pradesh Police during the former Akhilesh Yadav government was one of the major reasons behind the lawlessness in the state. With the change of guards, Yadavs in UP police are now dropping their surnames in the nameplates to avoid harassment.

The practice has been on a rise especially after the suspension of former Firozabad SP and IPS officer Himanshu Kumar, who had alleged in a series of tweets that the Uttar Pradesh government is selectively targeting officials of the Yadav caste.

Despite the clarification from the state government that it was a disciplinary action followed by an inquiry report, the controversy has refused to die down. newstrack.com has come across a number of instances where cops of Yadav caste are dropping their surnames from their nameplates.

An inspector at the SSP office in Bareilly said, “They have a guilty conscience that they exploited the situation during the previous regime.”

ALSO READ:

Either behave or leave Uttar Pradesh, UP CM warns criminals

Will break limbs of people who disrespect and kill cows: BJP MLA

A name plate of a cop bears his name and Batch numbers which serves as his identity on the uniform. It is not mandatory for police personnel to carry his surname but the ones who did carry, have resorted to dropping it following the regime change.

newstrack.com met several Yadav cops in Subash Nagar, Kotwali and Qila police stations who have dropped surname fearing selective targeting.

Another cop, privy to the development, said, “Those who reaped fruits of Yadavization of the police force are now worried for obvious reasons. Plus this trend of previous regime rewarding its Yadav clansmen had frustrated many deserving officials.”

Close to half of the 28 police stations here were led by Yadav cops a couple months back during Akhilesh Yadav regime. According to data from the state home department, close to 60% of the 1527 police stations in the state had Yadav chiefs. This happened in just two years of SP rule in the state.

Given the patronage enjoyed during Samajwadi Party regime, politicization of police force was always under criticism and the ones who were rewarded with key posts are now in panic mode.

"As of now there is not much panic at the top level given the transfers done by election commission recently when model code of conduct was in place. However, the palpable panic in the cadre is a norm everytime in the after the change of regime," superintendent of police (Rural Areas) Yamuna Prasad told newstrack.com.

However, another top cop in the region played down the development claiming that performance is the key. "In the department, performance is sacrosanct and it would be naive to believe that there is any other parameter," said superintendent of police (City) Sameer Saurabh.