Assam Cabinet approves plan to withdraw three lakh 'petty' criminal cases to reduce caseload

Assam Cabinet on Sunday approved the State government's decision to withdraw nearly three lakh cases related to "petty crime" in order to reduce caseloads on the courts.

Cabinet Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah told reporters in Guwahati that a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday approved the legal department's decision to withdraw the cases related to "petty crimes".

"At present, 4.19 lakh cases are pending for trial in various courts in the state. There are many cases where people are making rounds of the courts for a long time for petty crimes. For example, drinking and driving. This has not only increased the caseloads on our courts but has also led to the suffering of those facing the trial. So the government decided to withdraw the cases related to petty crimes so that the caseload of our courts can also be reduced," Baruah said.

"This will bring down the number of pending cases to a little over one lakh," he said.

The state cabinet also approved proposals for the setting up of two private universities in the state and the establishment of two milk processing plants in the Jorhat and Dibrugarh districts by a joint venture company being set up by the Assam government and the National Dairy Development Board.

Baruah said the cabinet also approved the Assam Disaster Risk Reduction Action Plan 2030, under which all departments of the state government would allocate three per cent of their budget for disaster risk reduction purposes. This will come into force from the 2023-24 state budget.