Patna, Jan 17 : Facing criticism over the deteriorating law and order situation in Bihar, state DGP S.K. Singhal claimed that the situation now is better than during previous DGP Gupteshwar Pandey's tenure. Singhal took charge as Bihar DGP on September 22 after previous DGP Pandey took VRS to contest the Bihar Assembly election. However, he did not contest elections after the Janata Dal (United) denied a ticket to him. "I have taken over charge as DGP in September. When you compare the crime graph of October 2020 with October 2019 and during the tenure of same period of other months with previous year, the crime graph is lower," Singhal said. "Why would you not point out crime data of 2019 when the department had registered a higher number of criminal cases?" Singhal asked the media. Singhal has been facing the heat ever since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar publicly contacted him over phone and directed him to respond to media queries. The Chief Minister has received complaints about the current state DGP and other police officials refusing to face the public. Opposition leaders such as RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha, Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) leader Pappu Yadav and others pointed to the monopoly of bureaucrats in their respective departments, alleging they ignored common people and did not even answer the phones of public representatives as well. The Bihar DGP pointed out the total cognisable crime cases till October 2020 are 2,14,968 which is lesser than 2019 when the department had registered 2,27,604 cognisable crimes during the same period. Heinous crimes like murders are still higher in 2020 as compared to 2019. /IANS