against women and children in Meghalaya registered an increase of 23.14% in 2013 compared to 2012, according to Meghalaya Governor Dr. K.K. Paul.
In his address to the Assembly on the opening day of the Budget session on Friday, the Governor said that the rise in crimes against women and children had prompted the government to entrust NEHU to conduct a study to ascertain the reasons with the participation of all stakeholders.
According to the Governor, a number of measures had been taken to prevent, detect and investigate crimes against women and children. The prosecutions of such cases were now being taken up in the Fast Track Courts and a Special Court.
He said units to prevent human trafficking had been set up at Shillong and Tura. Police officials were being sensitized on the important issue of crime against women and children.
“All cases of crime against women and children are being treated as special report cases which are supervised by senior police officers. The police department is deploying newly ) recruited women police officers in the rank of sub-inspectors in various police stations and they are being given the responsibility to deal with these cases.
He said that the implementation of the ‘Safe and Secure Shillong City Project’ was on- track.
“The Crime Criminal Tracking Network System Project will help the citizens to register their complaints and grievances, report against crime and criminals and track their complaints through internet-based services”, he added.
The state on an average registered 257 criminal cases per month out of which theft was predominant.
The Governor also informed that in order to effectively deal with the emerging challenges and to scale down the state’s dependence on Central Armed Police Forces, the state has decided to raise the Meghalaya Multi-purpose Special Force known as Special Force 10 or SF-10.
“Recruitment process has already been initiated and will be done as per the Transparent Recruitment Policy (TRP) using technological solutions in order to ensure objectivity, transparency and fair play in the recruitment process”, the Governor said.
