Faced with continuing criticism over his government's handling of the alleged gang-rape and murder of a young dalit girl in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday announced measures for women's safety in the state.
Adityanath was speaking in Balrampur district at the launch of 'Mission Shakti', a women's empowerment campaign launched by his government. The Mission Shakti campaign will run for six months.
Yogi Adityanath was quoted by ANI as saying, "There will be a separate room now for women complainants in 1,535 police stations across the state, where a female police constable will attend them and there will be urgent action on their complaint. Culprits of crimes against women will be punished swiftly."
Yogi Adityanath referred to the gang-rape and murder of a young woman in Balrampur late last month as being the reason he chose the district to launch the Mission Shakti campaign. "To pay homage to the victim of a very unfortunate incident, I decided to kick off Mission Shakti campaign from Balrampur and I'm extremely delighted to launch this programme. Mission Shakti aims at guaranteeing security and respect for every woman in the state," Yogi was quoted as saying by ANI.
In the run-up to the launch of Mission Shakti, the Yogi Adityanath government had requested the Allahabad High Court to direct all district and sessions courts to dispose of cases against women and children on a priority basis.
The Yogi Adityanath government is organising Mission Shakti with both official and non-governmental events. “Along with organising special events highlighting the need for security, dignity and empowerment of women, officers should launch a weeklong special campaign every month during the campaign to create awareness among masses and sensitise people on the subject,” Hindustan Times quoted Adityanath as saying.
“Yogi said various programmes should be organised to train women to become self-reliant and to sensitise people to respect them. These programmes should be organised in all the 521 blocks, 59,000 gram panchayats, 630 urban local bodies and 1,535 police stations in the 75 districts of the state,” Hindustan Times reported.
