Congress urges Guv to ask Odisha govt to form House Committee to probe crimes against women

Bhubaneswar, Mar 29 (PTI) Opposition Congress on Saturday urged Odisha Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati to direct the state government to constitute a House Committee to probe crimes against women.
    The Congress has recently staged protests both inside and outside the assembly over the issue.
    A high-level delegation of the party led by Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das submitted a memorandum to the governor to press for their demand.
    They impressed upon the governor the need for a mechanism to control the rising atrocities against women and ensure their safety.
    "Serious incidents of crimes against women are increasing at an alarming rate in Odisha. You will not find any single district where such horrific crimes are not happening," the memorandum stated.
    In the chief minister's home district Keonjhar, a class 6 student was found pregnant in Champua area and a class 9 pupil also became pregnant at an ashram school in Telkoi.
    Cases of rape and murder were being reported in Jaleswar, Dhenkanal, Malkangiri, Talcher, Rourkela, Bolangir, Kandhamal, Mayurbhanj and in every part of Odisha, they alleged.
    Noting that the state government has admitted in the assembly that 20,000 women and children had gone missing in the last nine months, the Congress stated that 1,600 cases of serious crimes against women have been registered in different police stations of the state in the last eight months.
    "Sixty-one cases of rape, gang rape and murder have been reported in the last eight months. Every hour, four women or girls go missing in the state and every day, eight women are raped, gang-raped and murdered," the Congress memorandum stated.
    Stating that the Congress has been seeking a House Committee to probe the crimes and has been raising the issue both inside and outside the assembly, the party said the chief minister has neither made any remark nor formed the panel.
    When party MLAs raised the issue in the House, they were assaulted and scolded, it said, alleging that the state parliamentary affairs minister used unparliamentary language and instigated the treasury bench members to "attack" Congress MLAs and accordingly they thrashed Taraprasad Bahinipati and gave a blow to his abdomen.
    "All these things happened in the presence of the Speaker and on that very day, Bahinipati was suspended for seven days from the House. Not only that, as we went on protesting against the illegal and unconstitutional act of the Speaker, she suspended all 14 MLAs of the Congress," they alleged.
    They also drew the attention of the governor to the "brutal attack" on party workers by the police during the 'Vidhan Sabha gherao' programme.
    "We were holding the programme peacefully but all of a sudden, police lathi-charged our party activists. They used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. More than 40 Congress workers and leaders suffered injuries of whom 10 are in serious condition," the memorandum added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)