Amit Shah seeks early probe of rape, sexual assault cases in time-bound manner

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday sought an early investigation of rape and sexual assault cases against women and stringent punishment against the offenders in a time-bound manner. He said this at the 25th meeting of the Western Zonal Council held in Diu.

“The home minister stressed the need for early investigation of rape and sexual offenses against women and children and stringent punishment in a time-bound manner in these cases,” a home ministry official said. Shah said additional director general of police level officers, if possible women officers, should be entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the investigation of all such cases in the police headquarters of each state.

Referring to expanding banking network in rural areas, the home minister said according to the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Department of Posts will introduce additional 20,715 India Post Payment Bank live touch points which will provide banking facilities in addition to regular postal services. Co-operative banks and other banks including India Post Payments Bank should ensure that every unbanked village in the Western region is provided with banking facilities within 5 km within the next year, Shah said.

He said states should include schemes of all states other than centrally-sponsored schemes on the Direct Benefit Transfer platform. The home minister said work should be done towards providing mobile connectivity to all the villages in the Western region within a year.

Cash deposit facility through common service centres should be extended in a time-bound manner and all banks should be linked to the platform and this should be reviewed quarterly, he said. The issue of rates of water supplied to Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu by the Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board was also resolved in the council meeting, the official said.

The regional councils provide a forum for discussion in a structured manner on issues affecting one or more states or issues between the Centre and the states. In the last eight years under the guidance of Prime Minister Modi, the number of meetings of the Zonal Councils and its Standing Committees have increased by three times, the official said.

There have been 18 meetings of various zonal councils and 24 of their standing committees in the last 8 years, whereas in the corresponding period of last 8 years only 6 and 8 meetings were held respectively. Out of the 30 topics discussed in the 25th Western Regional Council, 27 have been resolved and only three are left for further discussion.

It shows the resolve and commitment of the government towards the all-round development of the nation in the spirit of cooperative federalism, the official said. Regional councils help in developing a coordinated approach through discussion and exchange of views between states on important issues of social and economic development, the official said, adding the meetings of the Zonal Council should be used by the states and union territories to share their best practices.