RAJESH TIWARI Mumbai
The minister for women and child development has demanded for the setup of fast- track courts to expeditiously deal with perpetrators of violence against women and children.
She has written a letter to t
he Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in this context.
She has demanded that some of the 100 courts proposed to be set up in the state should be kept selectively for dealing with cases of atrocities against women. She said the current judicial setup is tedious to immediately adjudicate over cases of atrocities against the vulnerable sections and hence the need for fast track courts.
Varsha Gaikwad who belongs to the Congress, has been campaigning since the end of June in different parts of the state to end sex selective abortion and save the female child. She had formulated a couple of incentive schemes, one of these specifically for girls below the poverty line.
According to sources, some ministers from the NCP are forestalling her efforts and have themselves started the save girl campaign to claim the credit Maharashtra reserves 50 per cent of the seats in local and municipal bodies for women. Any pretext to hog the limelight is important now, since the NCP is debating whether to run the gauntlet of the forthcoming elections on its own. Gaikwad, has started off a couple of Central programmes to help the female child. The scene is bristling with schemes, ideas of schemes, programmes, meetings and padayatras with NCP leaders like Supriya Sule, Vinayak Mete launching their own campaign to hog the limelight over the girl protection issue.
