Bill to empower cops to monitor schools on kids' safety

The Assembly on Friday approved an amendment bill that seeks to empower the police to control and regulate private school managements for ensuring safety and security of schoolchildren.

The police need more powers to effectively monitor and regulate activities of school managements to ensure safety of children due to a rise in cases of sexual harassment, the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Bill, 2016, piloted by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra, stated.

The bill was passed without any discussion as Opposition parties were staging a dharna in the well of the House on the Ganapathi suicide case.

“In the recent past, cases of sexual harassment of children have been on the rise. In this regard, the Union Government has enacted the Pocso Act 2012. Though the police have been registering cases, investigating them and filing final reports to the courts, the school staff and management have been found to be negligent. Hence, the police need to be given more powers,” Jayachandra said.

The bill also proposes to amend the Karnataka Police Act, 1963 and replace the word “eunuch” with the word “person”. Using the word “eunuch” in the Act amounts to violation of articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The bill also seeks to appoint Deputy Commissioners of districts as chairmen of the District Complaints Authority.

Opposition leader Jagadish Shettar took exception to the government getting the bill passed without any discussion. Speaker K B Koliwad should not allow passage of bills when the House is not in order, he said. JD(S) leader Y S V Datta also objected to it.

He urged Health Minister K R Ramesh Kumar to intervene and guide the House on procedures to be followed for passing bills. But there was no response from the treasury benches. The protesting members tore the copies of the bill into pieces as a mark of protest.