New Delhi, April 21: The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday approved an ordinance on the death penalty for those convicted of raping children below the age of 12.
The decision came a day after the Ministry of Women and Child Development told the Supreme Court that it was proposing the death penalty for those convicted of raping children.
The Ministry had told the apex court that the government was "sensitive to the plight of young children" brutally abused in the most horrific manner, and proposed to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by introducing the death penalty to the convicts of child rapes.
The Cabinet move came in the backdrop of nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, and other instances in different parts of the country including a nine-year-old girl in Surat.
The POCSO Act was formulated in order to effectively address sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children.
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Dehradun (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a roadshow in Dehradun on Tuesday, with a large crowd lining both sides of the road to greet him.
The prime minister is in the city to inaugurate the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway.
Before the roadshow, he stopped to pray at the Siddhpeeth Maa Datkali Temple near Dehradun on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
He then embarked on a 12-kilometre road trip to the main event venue, Jaswant Ground, in Dehradun.
A large number of people, including school children, gathered to welcome the prime minister and showered flowers on his convoy.
A massive police force was deployed for security during the prime minister's movement.
Modi will inaugurate the Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor, which will cut the travel time between the two cities to less than half. He will also undertake a review of the wildlife passage on the elevated section of the high-speed expressway in Saharanpur.
The 213-kilometre six-lane access-controlled corridor has been built at a cost of over Rs 12,000 crore.
The corridor traverses through the states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, and will reduce travel time between Delhi and Dehradun from over six hours at present to around two and a half hours, according to an official statement.
