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In view of rising incidence of crime against women, Assam chief minister Tarun Kumar Gogoi has set one-month deadline for the State's Home and Political Department to prepare a detail action plan to prevent and control such incidents.
The CM’s directive came after he had reviewed the recommendations put forward by the taskforce constituted by the government for prevention and control of incidence of crime against women in the State. The chairman of the Task Force, Mukesh Sahai, additional director general of state police (criminal investigation department) wing) apprised the CM in detail about the recommendations contained in the task force report.
The review meeting chaired by the CM discussed in detail the role that should be played by various government departments – police, social welfare, education, Information and PR, health, panchayat and rural development, transport, finance, law, public health engineering etc -- in respect of prevention and checking of incidents of crime against women in the state.
The review meeting discussed setting up of a ‘Crisis Intervention Centre’ involving police, doctors, lawyers and voluntary organisations in respect of prevention and checking of crime against women. The issue of providing compensation to the victims of such crime came up for detail discussion especially on victims’ compensation scheme.
The CM called for coordination among various government departments including the home department in this regard and stressed on speedy investigation and fast completion trial in cases related to crime against women.
Gogoi directed the State police force to identify areas more prone to incidence of crime against women and take effective steps to prevent the same. He also underlined the need to launch a mass awareness campaign to alert the masses against the crime against women.
There has been a steep rise in cases of crime against women in Assam during the last one decade that has raised concern in various quarters in the state that was once considered a safe place for women folk.
As per the official records provided by Government of Assam in the State Assembly, 38,825 cases of atrocities on women were registered in the state since the year 2002 to January 31, 2013.
This is in addition to occurrence of 1,229 cases of dowry deaths occurring in the state during the same period. The number of cases related to kidnapping of women registered during the same period was stated to be 22,050.
The maximum number of cases of atrocities on women in a single calendar year occurred in the year 2012 and the figure was stated to be 6,673. The same year registered 144 cases of dowry deaths and 3,312 cases of kidnapping of women.