BHUBANESWAR: Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Friday said incidents of crime against women has decreased in the state in the last 17 months after the BJP government came to power.
Responding to a discussion on an adjournment motion notice brought by the opposition BJD and Congress over the issue, the minister, replying on behalf of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, said cases of rape and molestation have gone down by 3.3 per cent and 1.9 per cent during the last 17 months compared to the corresponding period under the previous government.
The minister said while cases of sexual harassment have decreased by 0.7 per cent, incidents of public disrobing of women have drastically gone down by 22.2 per cent. Similarly, cases of acid attack on women have decreased by 66.7 per cent while number of dowry death and torture has gone down by 20.6 per cent and 7.2 per cent respectively. He said the number of women trafficking has also reduced by 24.1 per cent.
The discussion on crime against women took place while the Opposition members referred to an incident of sexual abuse of three girls in MV 72 of Malkangiri district on November 23. Stating that the top priority of the government is to ensure safety of women in the state, the minister said that accused in the case, a 48-year-old man was arrested by police on November 26. The incident took place on November 23 while the families of the three girls had filed FIRs on November 25.
Participating in the debate, Congress MLA Ashok Das alleged that the state government has been highly insensitive towards crimes against women. Without focusing on checking incidents of rape and other crimes against women, the government is satisfied with registering a case or arresting a person.
Goutam Buddha Das of BJD gave examples of several cases in which the culprits were not arrested including one in Chief Minister Majhi’s home district Keonjhar in an alleged case of rape and murder. Congress MLA from Malkangiri Mangu Khila alleged that though several such cases have taken place in the district, no steps have been taken to check recurrences of such incidents.