BHUBANESWAR: Making one of his most impassioned speeches, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday said politicising any human tragedy, especially relating to women, is inhuman and called upon the legislators to set high standard of political discourse in and outside the Assembly.
In his reply to the debate on the supplementary demand for grants of the Home Department, Naveen referred to the Opposition attack on the Government over the lady VLW death and said, “This kind of politics will never give any returns. We are a mature democracy.”
When he rose to speak, the Chief Minister set the tone by telling the members that he was not making a regular statement. "Rape, murder, death of women are extremely sad events. Politicising them multiplies the trauma and gives a very wrong message to the people at large and young people in particular. In case, anyone is not satisfied with the investigation, there are legal fora for relief," he said.
The main opposition BJP had boycotted the Assembly for five days demanding a CBI probe into the death of the woman VLW under mysterious circumstances in Jajpur district. While ignoring this particular case raised by the Opposition members during the debate, the Chief Minister assured them that crime against women will remain one of the top priorities of the Government and no stone will be left unturned to ensure justice.
“Let me assure that any case of neglect especially relating to women and children will not be spared and exemplary action will be taken. Let’s not politicise tragedies related to women and children,” he said.
Due to prompt and professional investigation in four sensational cases of rape and murder of minor girls, death penalty has been awarded to the accused persons under POCSO Act, the Chief Minister said and informed that there is an increase in the conviction rate in red-flag cases to 41.48 per cent in 2019.
The Chief Minister also solicited the cooperation of all MLAs to take governance to the next level towards an empowered Odisha under the 5T charter. Stating that there has been a huge transformation in service delivery at the police station after implementation of 5T charter, he said the Government is aware that this transformational initiative will certainly increase the reporting and registration of cases.
He asked all police functionaries to do their job with commitment, without fear or favour. “Do not bother about statistics of registration. People are more important than statistics for my Government,” he said.
Naveen said he had made a commitment to the people on August 15 that within one year they will have a choice whether to visit a Government office or not for any service or entitlement.
“Other than places where there is statutory requirement, people will have a choice to avail services online through common service centres or door delivery,” he said and added that the next target under 5T is payment of wages to labourers through banks in all the works of the State Government.