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A week after her last one, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, countering a letter sent to her by the Minister of Women and Child Development where it was alleged that the West Bengal Government did not establish a single fast track court in the state.
Banerjee wrote, “You may kindly recall my letter No.44-CM dated August 22, 2024 (copy enclosed) regarding the need for stringent Central legislation on incidents of rape and meting out exemplary punishment to perpetrators of such crimes. No reply was received from your end on such a sensitive issue. However, a reply has been received from the Minister of Women and Child Development, Government of India (vide their No. 1/RESC/HMWCD/2024 dated August 25 2024), which barely attends to the gravity of the issue raised in my letter. I am of the thought that the seriousness of the subject and its relevance to the society have not been adequately appreciated while sending out this generic reply.”
The Chief Minister also wrote that her state’s “initiatives” that “appeared to have been overlooked” in the Minister of Women and Child Development’s reply.
“Regarding Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs), 10 exclusive POCSO Courts have been approved by the State Government. In addition to this, 88 FTSCs and 62 POCSO designated Courts are functioning throughout the State on complete State funding, Monitoring and disposal of cases is completely in the hands of the Courts. As per Central Government guidelines, only retired Judicial Officers can be posted as Presiding Officers in FTSCs but Hon’ble High Court has observed that in view of the severity of the cases, permanent Judicial Officers need to be posted. This requires examination at the level of Government of India and suitable action thereafter, for which your intervention would be necessary,” she wrote.
Banerjee added that the helpline numbers of 112 and 1098 are “satisfactorily” working, while the number 100 is “extensively used in emergency situations.”
Earlier, Banerjee had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on incidents of rape in the country. In that letter, she had written, “I wish to bring to your kind attention the regular and increasing occurrence of rape cases throughout the country and in many cases, rapes with murder are committed. According to the available data, it is horrifying to see that almost 90 cases of rapes occur daily throughout the country.”
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