Lucknow, Aug 25 (PTI) A day after a journalist was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia, the Opposition on Tuesday lashed out the Uttar Pradesh government, expressing concern over mediapersons' security and the law and order situation.

Ratan Singh (45), who worked with a Hindi news channel, was murdered on Monday night in the Phephana police station area of the district.

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A police officer was suspended while six people arrested in connection with the murder on Tuesday.

Reacting to the incident, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said in a tweet that the UP government's attitude towards the "security and freedom of journalists" is condemnable.

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Tagging a graph showing incidents of crime in the past two days, she alleged that the Yogi Adityanath government “tries to cover up” crime but it has now spilled on to the roads.

“The evident does not need any proof. This is the crime metre of two days,” she said tagging the graph showing criminal acts.

In a separate tweet, she said in the past three months, three journalists-- Shubham Mani Tripathi, Vikram Joshi and Ratan Singh--have been killed while FIRs have been lodged against 11.

“The UP government's attitude towards the freedom and security of journalists in condemnable," she said.

The Samajwadi Party also took to Twitter, announcing a financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the family of the journalist.

The party tweeted that on the directions of its national president Akhilesh Yadav, it will give Rs 2 lakh assistance to family members of journalist killed due to “collapsed law and order” in Ballia district.

“The SP demands Rs 50 lakh assistance to the victim's family by the state government," the party said in the tweet.

Earlier in the day, BSP president Mayawati hit out at the state government, accusing it of failing to check criminal activities “despite frequently using stringent laws such as the National Security Act”.

She said it was because of the "wrong use of legislations" that neither there is the rule of law nor the fear of law left in people. People associated with the media are facing atrocities and also being killed, the BSP supremo said.

"The state of affairs in the state is such that despite the frequent use of the NSA, sedition and other such stringent laws, there is no check on crime," Mayawati said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)