Panel on crimes on women, kids seeks another extension

Govt has not acted on interim report, says Committee chief

Despite missed deadlines and repeated extensions, the expert committee to prevent crimes on women and children constituted by the government, has failed to submit its final report.

On Thursday, the committee's term came to an end and it has sought yet another extension. This is the fourth such extension sought by the committee, which was given a timeframe of six months to submit its report.

Several instances of rapes, especially on minors, prompted the government to set up the committee in October 2014.

Committee chairperson and Congess MLC V S Ugrappa on Thursday said that he has written to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seeking another extension, assuring that the report would be submitted in the next three months.

Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Ugrappa said that the government had failed to act on the panel's interim report recommendations which was submitted six months ago.
He, however, contradicted himself by saying that neither the chief minister nor Women and Child Development (WCD) minister Umashree were at fault, as the onus was on district administrations and WCD officials. So far, the committee has not held a single meeting with the WCD minister.

Slamming the officials of various departments concerned, he said that the conviction rate in crimes against women and children was less than 3%.

No compensation
He also said that the officials had failed to disburse compensation under the victim compensation scheme.

He said that in the last three years, around Rs 500 crore was released under the scheme. But, the district level authorities had failed to disburse the same to the victims. More than 80% of the victims had not received the compensation, he stated.

“After the Nirbhaya case, the Centre has set aside over Rs 2,000 crore under the victim compensation scheme. Though 200 to 300 rape cases are reported from districts every year, the district administrations have failed to utilise the amount,” he said.

Ugrappa lamented that he did not received any cooperation from some members of the panel and also the officialdom, who chose to abstain themselves from the several meetings.