Maharashtra government may convene a special session of the state legislature to pass the legislation on the lines of the ‘’Disha Act’’ of the Andhra Pradesh government that seeks to fast track cases of offences against women and children and award death penalty.
Home Minister Anil Deshmukh told Free Press Journal that he would request the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to convene a two-day special legislature session to pass legislation.
The state government had earlier planned to table the bill in the budget session but following its curtailment on Saturday due to the coronavirus outbreak it proposes to organise a special session. Already a five member committee has been formulated to craft the legislation.
He made the announcement in the state legislative council.
"Due to the coronavirus crisis, we have to curtail the budget session of the legislature. But for clearing the bill, we are considering convening a two-day session once the coronavirus crisis gets over," he said.
"We had been to Andhra Pradesh to study the Act and a team has already been formed to look into it. We will announce the schedule about the special session soon," Deshmukh added.
Deshmukh last month had held discussions with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Home Minister M Sucharita and others on the Act and showered praise on the YSR Congress government for setting up setting up exclusive "Disha Police Stations" within two months of enacting the legislation.
Thereafter, Deshmukh held marathon meetings with women legislators in the state and sought their suggestions. They had suggested names for new legislation as Shakti, Nirbhaya and Damini.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had on Friday said that the government may issue an ordinance to introduce a legislation on the lines of the ''Disha Act'' of Andhra Pradesh.
