State readies for women and crime meet

SHILLONG, JAN 2: The Meghalaya government is compiling data of violence against women, including rape, in the state even as its law department is working on the status of administration of justice to women victims of violence.

Meghalaya chief secretary W. M. S. Pariat on Wednesday held a meeting with the state DGP Kulbir Kishan and the law secretary L. M. Sangma to discuss matters concerning crimes against women and also the administration of justice in cases involving women.  Both the police and the law departments have been directed to compile detailed reports which Pariat will present at the meeting called by the Union government in New Delhi on January 4.

The Centre has called the meeting of chief secretaries and director generals of police of all the states and union territories to review the “Safety and Security of women, SC and ST across the country”. The meeting comes in the backdrop of the sensational rape and murder of the twenty-three year old Delhi medical college student Damini and the subsequent outburst of people across the country over the crime and inadequate law to deal with the perpetrator(s) of such heinous crimes.

Needless to say the Damini incident will mean the focus of the meeting will confine largely on the issue of “rape” and “violence” against women across the country and what the state governments are doing to curb it.

Emerging from a meeting with Pariat, Kishen said he discussed the enforcement of law with regards to violence against women and how to make the law more effective in the state. Refusing to elaborate, he simply said: “We also discussed how to make the required changes so that the suggestion can be put up during the meeting.”

According to a state home department official, the meeting will review the legal and statutory framework, procedural issues, implementation, disposal of cases and weakness in the laws dealing with different types of offences against women in the country. By Our Reporter