The State Government has proposed to have a set-up to prevent crime against women and children. This set-up will comprise investigating officers, legal advisors, prosecutors and counselors apart from DNA laboratories and mobile forensic teams.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath has written a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah apprising him of State Government's intention. He also sought budgetary support of Rs 880 crore for the set-up.
Nath in the letter said that crime against women and children is a sensitive issue. He said that the State Government is committed to strictly deal with offences against women and children. For this initiative support from the Government of India is urgently required.
The Chief Minister said that it would require to set up a Cell to check crimes against women, procurement of investigating equipments, reorganization of mounted troops and dog squad, counselors to deal with cases of crimes against women. This will require technically skilled manpower, patrolling vehicles and office buildings.
He requested the home minister to support this initiative as "this will help in dealing with one of the most sensitive issues in the state". In a horrific incident, an eight-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal earlier this month.
According to a latest data of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), as many as 34,651 cases of rape were registered in 2015. The number increased to 38,947 in 2016.
Overall crimes against women rose from 3,29,243 in 2015 to 3,38,954 in 2016, according to the NCRB data. The highest number of rapes has been reported from Madhya Pradesh (4,882), followed by Uttar Pradesh (4,816) and Maharashtra (4,189) in 2016, it said.