‘632 cases of sexual assault on children in UP from Apr-Jan’

At district level,Mahila police stations have been set up in all districts and juvenile officers (sub-inspector) appointed in every police station. An anti-human trafficking unit too has been constituted in 24 districts,Khan said. Cutting across party lines,legislators expressed their concern over the rising number of incidents related to sexual assault and rape of children. Mahana said that the government should take special measures to eradicate this social evil. His colleague Ajay Mishra raised the issue of the rape of a minor at Nighasan in Lakhimpur during the previous Mayawati regime. “More than two years have passed while the CBI is yet to work out the case. It would be better if the state government writes a letter to the agency for expediating the investigation,” he remarked.

Maurya asked about the number of deaths in such incidents and the compensation paid to families of the victims. Khan shared the members concern. “We too want that there should be time-bound disposal of such cases. It is not in our hand and the Centre should bring changes in law,” he stated. He added that he will bring the Nighasan rape case to the notice of the CM and urge him to consider writing a letter to the CBI for fast investigation. Khan admitted that he had no figures of deaths of children in such incidents. “At the moment,I don’t have figures. We try to give compensation in such cases,” he stated.

Later,Khan also stated that compensation is also given in other cases. “They may not be sexual assualt but these cases are related to children. We gave compensation in the deaths of children when a school wall collapsed. We also gave compensation when a 12-year-old girl lost her life after dogs mauled her. These dogs are there in Nagalia village in Rampur,but we cannot take action against them due to Maneka Gandhi,” he stated.