Panaji, Dec 3 (IANS): Rapists should be "hanged till death", according to Lok Sabha MP Jaya Prada. She also said that people in Uttar Pradesh have started to believe that corruption is better than crime as they "are scared for their lives".

She was speaking to IANS Monday in Panaji on the sidelines of her visit to Goa, where a film produced by her is being shot.

Asked to comment on the controversy and outrage caused by the alleged rape of a former junior employee of newsweekly Tehelka by editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, she said that rapists should be "hanged and punished till death".

She also said that it was not just that women were unsafe in Uttar Pradesh alone, but places like Mumbai and Delhi too were unsafe.

Commenting on the increase in crime in Uttar Pradesh, the Rampur MP, who was formerly a senior member of the Samajwadi Party, Jaya Prada said that people in Uttar Pradesh preferred corruption to crime.

"This time, in Mulayam Singh's government people are scared for their lives. There is no protection to women and children or to common people. People say corruption is better than crime...killing people," Prada said, citing the Muzzafarnagar violence as an example.