Lack of coordination and poor implementation of law in the state: Chitra Wagh

@UtkarshaMuley

Nashik: “Laws are not weak, but the ones implementing them are weak”, remarked Chitra Wagh, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice president . The number of cases of missing women is increasing in the state. About 25,000 women have reportedly gone missing in the state. It is not a small number, she added. She questioned, “Where is the Damini squad? Why is there no proper patrolling done by police?”

She said that in Nashik city on average four women a day go missing. “In a city like Nashik girls are not safe at all. They cannot go out on their own. They are molested when they are walking down the road”, she added. Wagh said this while speaking to newspersons while she was on tour of Nashik district

She said that the police take action after the crime takes place and is reported. The job of the police is also to make sure that such incidences do not occur in the first place. They need to take preventive measures.

As per the recent report by National Commission for Women (NCW) the state is third after Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in the number of complaints of crimes against women registered in 2020.

“The increase in such incidents is because the anti-social elements who commit such things feel safe, they are not afraid of the police, they know that there is going to be no harm to them if they do any such thing. She further said that they are being protected by the government. People are afraid of these anti-social elements”, said Wagh.

The law and order is a state subject and so the Home department is responsible to maintain law and order in the state. Stating that the state government is responsible for maintaining law and order in the state, Wagh remarked that the state government and Home department were not working properly.

Wagh further added, “The state of law and order in the state is very bad. The increasing crimes against women like kidnapping, gang rape, molestation is making the state unsafe for women. It seems like suddenly human trafficking racket of women has activated in the state.”

She while highlighting the state of law enforcement in the state said that no proper coordination among police and cyber cell delays the whole process in case of missing women. Along with this another reason for the increase in such incidents is people’s reluctance to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies.

Wagh noted, “When such an incident happens no one comes to help the girl, women who are being assaulted. One of the reasons for people just being bystanders is that they don’t want to get involved as it leads to police calling them, ‘police anchi jhanjat nako’ is their attitude. People are scared of goons and have no support from the police.”

Apart from this as part of her Nashik district tour, she visited tribal areas in Trambak taluka.

She said, “These are very remote villages, reaching them is very difficult and people in these tribal villages are deprived of basic facilities like water and health infrastructure.”

She added that these tribal villages are very remote and are not connected to the mainland because of the lack of proper roads. There is no proper health infrastructure in place which leads to their need to come to Nashik city to get basic treatment.

There are no Anganwadi’s in these areas. As per the official record, there were supposed to be 21 Anganwadi, said Wagh.

“Many pregnant women die due to pregnancy complications in these areas, also infant mortality rate is high and the reason is that they cannot access required medical attention in time”, she added.

All these lead to the mystery as to where all the funds allocated by the government for the development of these tribal regions end up.