Made consistent efforts to exclude India from UN report on children in armed conflict, says govt
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New Delhi: The government was consistently making efforts to exclude India from the UN's annual report on the impact of armed conflict on children, the Women and Child Development Ministry has said after the country did not feature in the report for the first time since 2010.
The United Nations has removed India from its annual report on the impact of armed conflict on children, citing "measures taken by the government to better protect" them.
In a statement, the Women and Child Development Ministry said, "The ongoing engagement of the Government of India with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General sped up after an inter-ministerial meeting in November 2021."
The meeting was attended by Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development Indevar Pandey, Ministry of External Affairs, Permanent Mission of India at New York, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and Virginia Gamba, the special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and the UN officials in New Delhi.
The move led to an agreement to appoint a national focal point to identify priority national interventions to enhance the protection of children, a joint technical mission to hold inter-ministerial technical-level meetings with the UN to identify areas of enhanced cooperation for child protection, the statement said.
"A roadmap for cooperation and collaboration on child protection issues was developed by the ministry," it said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his report last year that he had welcomed the engagement of the Indian government with his special representative and noted that it might lead to the removal of India as a situation of concern.
In his 2023 report on Children and Armed Conflict, the UN chief said, "In view of the measures taken by the government to better protect children, India has been removed from the report in 2023."
Guterres highlighted the technical mission of the office of his special representative in July 2022 to identify areas of cooperation for child protection and the workshop on strengthening child protection held in Jammu and Kashmir last November by the government with the United Nations' participation.
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Delhi Police apprehends 966 people in southeast Delhi ahead of New Year under Operation Aaghat 3.0
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi Police has apprehended 966 people and seized arms, drugs, illegal liquor and vehicles during a large-scale preventive crackdown in southeast Delhi ahead of New Year celebrations, an official said on Saturday.
The operation, namely Operation Aaghat 3.0, was launched to curb organised crime, street offences and the activities of habitual criminals in view of heightened public movement during year-end festivities, they said.
Of the total, 331 accused were arrested under the Delhi Excise Act, NDPS Act and the Public Gambling Act, while 504 people were apprehended under various preventive provisions, the police said.
As part of targeted action, police apprehended 116 listed bad characters, arrested five auto-lifters and four proclaimed offenders, officials added.
During the operation, police recovered 21 country-made pistols, 20 live cartridges and 27 knives under the Arms Act. They also seized 12,258 quarters of illicit liquor, 6.01 kg of ganja and Rs 2.36 lakh from gamblers.
A total of 310 mobile phones, six two-wheelers and one four-wheeler were also recovered, the police said.
In addition, action was taken against 1,306 persons under the Delhi Police Act, while 231 two-wheelers were seized for violations, the officials said.
The crackdown was carried out with over 600 police personnel deployed across the district.
The police said the operation was aimed at preventing any untoward incident during New Year celebrations, particularly in residential areas and jhuggi clusters, and to deter organised crime networks and habitual offenders.
Officials said stringent legal provisions, including sections 111 and 112 of the BNS, would be invoked in suitable cases, and proposals for externment of repeat offenders were also being initiated.
The police added that intensified patrolling, vehicle checking and night surveillance had led to a reduction in PCR calls related to street crime in the district over the past month.
