New Delhi, June 6: There was a time in Mumbai's Byculla jail when only two buckets of water were allocated to 600 women prisoners for the whole day, while only five sanitary towels were issue per month to every woman, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said on Wednesday.

Speaking about the achievements of her ministry in last four years, she said on her order, officials from the ministry visited the prison only to find that the two buckets of water would not have lasted for more than 15 minutes and suitable action was taken.

She also said that a Widow's Home with a capacity of 1,000 widows was constructed in Vrindavan to provide a safe and secure place for them and will be inaugurated by the month-end.

She also informed that over 1.8 crore calls were received every year since 2014 on the Child Helpline 1098 and the number of locations where the service is operation has gone up from 279 to 435 locations from 2014.

Underscoring the importance of forensics in nabbing the culprits in sexual assault cases, the minister said special forensic kits for rape would be distributed to all the police stations and hospitals by the month of July.

"These kits would contain a complete list of evidence/samples to be collected along with the equipment required to collect the evidence. The kits would be locked and sealed before being sent to forensic labs," she said.

On the disputes in NRI marriages, the minister said her ministry is in the process of issuing orders to the Registrars that NRI marriages have to be registered within 48 hours else the passport/visas would not be issued.

The Registrars would send the details of such NRI marriages to the ministry so that a Central database can be maintained.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Beijing, Nov 16: Eight persons were killed and 17 injured in a knife attack at a vocational school in east China's Jiangsu Province on Saturday, local police officials said.

The attack took place at around 6:30 pm at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in Yixing City.

The 21-year-old suspect, surnamed Xu, was caught at the scene and he confessed to his crime, according to a statement released by the public security bureau of Yixing, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the police, Xu, a graduate of the school this year, returned to the school to vent his anger for not receiving his graduation certificate due to failing exams and for dissatisfaction with his internship pay.

Rescue efforts are underway and police are further investigating the case, the report said.

This is the second attack on civilians this week.

On November 12, thirty-five people were killed and 43 injured when a man ploughed his car into a crowd of people at a sports centre in Zhuhai city.

Police who detained a man called Fan said his actions stemmed from his dissatisfaction with the property division outcome of his divorce.

Expressing concern over the incident, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged all-out efforts to treat the injured.

Car ramming incidents, besides knife attacks on civilians, have been taking place periodically in China in recent months. The incidents are routinely blamed on disgruntled elements by security officials.