Shelter home incidents shameful, no culprit will escape action: Rajnath
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that rapes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh shelter homes are "sad and shameful" and assured that steps would be taken to prevent recurrence of such acts and that no culprit would escape action.
"I direct the ministry concerned to issue advisories to all states so that no such incident is repeated. Running shelter homes can be investigated," Singh assured the opposition.
"Whatever happened in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is sad and shameful," he said during the Question Hour.
However, there was again an uproar after the Union Minister praised and congratulated Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's government for taking "concrete steps" after the Deoria shelter home crime surfaced.
"He (Adityanath) called a meeting of all the officers and directed them to take strict action. No culprit will escape action The District Planning Officer was suspended and the managers of the shelter home were arrested," Rajnath Singh said.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said: "The issue is being raised in the House consecutively for three days, let us have a parliamentary panel to inspect and submit a report."
Kharge also asked the Speaker to set up a House Committee to probe the incidents.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party staged a walkout after the Home Minister's statement, demanding an impartial probe into both Deoria and Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said: "These incidents are very unfortunate. All the concerned members should take appropriate action on such incidents in their constituencies. But, don't do politics on the matter."
Samajwadi Party member Dharmendra Yadav said "strict action should be taken against the culprits" and a probe should be initiated. He also said that he does not want to play politics on the issue.
He later said that the Home Minister's act of congratulating Adityanath for his efforts to take action in the Deoria case is "unfortunate and condemnable".
RJD member Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav also spoke on the issue.
Both shelter home horrors sparked a political storm in Parliament after the cases revealed sordid tales of women being abused at these places.
A total of 24 girls were rescued from the shelter home in Deoria late on Sunday after one of them told the police that they were being sexually abused.
Officials told IANS that 18 girls were missing from the privately-run shelter home which earlier got funds from the government. Its affiliation to the Women and Child Welfare Department was cancelled in 2017 after a CBI probe revealed some discrepancies.
At least 34 minor girls were raped at the Muzaffarpur shelter home. The crime came to light in July when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR on the basis of a social audit by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
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Bengal: Over 55 pc turnout till 1 pm in repoll in 15 booths of 2 assembly seats
Kolkata (PTI): Over 55 per cent turnout was recorded till 1 pm in repoll in 15 booths of two assembly constituencies in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on Saturday, an official said.
Voting was underway more or less peacefully at 11 polling stations of Magrahat Paschim assembly constituency and four in Diamond Harbour, where the EC ordered repoll a day ago, following reports of electoral malpractices.
However, at booth number 179 at Chanda Primary School of Diamond Harbour seat, the Trinamool Congress alleged that a specially abled voter and his mother were harassed by central forces. The alleged incident sparked protests by party workers and locals.
The TMC claimed that the voter's mother, who had entered the booth to assist him, and her son were detained for a considerable time by central forces over alleged rule violations.
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"TMC leaders Manmohini Biswas and Pratik Ur Rahman reached the spot and led the protests, with residents terming the action unwarranted harassment. The matter has been taken care of by our officials there," an official of the poll body said.
Polling was otherwise peaceful across 15 booths in the area, he added.
Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm, the official said, adding that till 1 pm, the turnout was 55.57 per cent.
Magrahat Paschim registered 56.33 per cent voter turnout, while in Diamond Harbour, it was 54.9 per cent, a poll official stated.
Voting in these two assembly constituencies was held in the second phase of the state elections on April 29.
The repoll order was based on reports received from returning officers and observers of the two constituencies and "material circumstances", the Election Commission official said.
In Magrahat Paschim, TMC's Md Samim Ahamed Molla is pitted against BJP nominee Goursundar Ghosh, while Abdul Majid Halder of the Congress and ISF candidate Abdul Aziz Al Hassan are also in the fray.
TMC candidate Panna Lal Halder is contesting against Dipak Kumar Halder of the BJP in the Diamond Harbour seat. Goutam Bhattacharya of the Congress and CPI(M)'s Samar Naiya are among other candidates.
The BJP had alleged rampant electoral malpractices in certain polling stations of both the assembly seats under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, which is represented by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The EC had deputed its special observer, Subrata Gupta, to fact-check the allegations from the ground.
The poll panel will decide on repolling in the Falta assembly constituency on Saturday.
The West Bengal assembly elections were held in two phases -- April 23 and April 29 -- amid unprecedented security arrangements.
Counting of votes will take place on May 4.
