Turning fear into faith: How Yogi Adityanath's 'mafia land to poor homes' policy redefined governance

There is a moment that changes everything in a neighborhood ruled by fear: when ordinary people realize the man who terrorized them for decades can no longer hurt them.

- DEVENDRA SINGH CHAUHAN

That moment came to Lucknow’s Dalibagh with fanfare, but with something profound—keys handed to 72 families, each unlocking a front door on land that once belonged to the late gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari.

These are not ordinary flats. They sit in one of Lucknow’s most upscale areas, on property valued at over Rs.1 crore per unit in the open market. Today, families who struggled to afford rent in cramped quarters now live there—paying just Rs.107 lakh under the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Residential Scheme. The children playing in the courtyard don’t know the history beneath their feet. But their parents do. And that knowledge—that crime once ruled here, but now we do—changes how they walk through their own neighborhood.

When Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath declared that “the wealth of criminals will be used for the poor,” skeptics dismissed it as rhetoric. Politicians had made promises before. But over the past several years, something unprecedented unfolded: Yogi's government began dismantling criminal empires brick by brick—and rebuilding them as monuments to justice.

In Prayagraj’s Lukarganj, the story repeated itself with even sharper symbolism. Land seized from Atiq Ahmed—a name that once made shopkeepers lower their voices and constables look away—now houses 76 flats under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). The selection was done through lottery.

Winning meant more than shelter; it meant reclaiming dignity in a city that had lived under Atiq’s shadow for decades.

Yogi gave a striking instruction during construction: leave a small part of the original structure intact. Not as a shrine, but as a reminder. So visitors could see what once stood there—and understand what replaced it. So no one would forget that this ground, soaked in extortion and fear, now belonged to the law. And to the people.