Schemes, police stations to public prosecutors, women get fair share
MUMBAI: An all-women police station, special investigative team (SIT) to investigate into cases of atrocities against women and more women public prosecutors – women remained one of the focus areas of the state budget presented on Friday.
Deputy chief minister and finance minister Ajit Pawar announced that the police station will be located at the district headquarters. Maharashtra will also set up women’s commission offices at the divisional commissioner level in the state.
Pawar also made a provision of ₹2,110 crore for all proposed schemes under the women and child development department. The previous Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, in its budget of July 2019, had announced sops worth ₹2,480 crore for women.
Pawar also announced creation of an SIT to investigate into cases of atrocities against women, and that more women government prosecutors will be appointed in the state to represent the government in court in cases of atrocities against women. In his budget speech, Pawar said: “The government is exploring the possibility to make strict laws to dispense quick justice, so that atrocities do not take place and even if, unfortunately such incidences occur, criminals can be held accountable.”
This comes after Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh announced last month that the state will soon have a special law, along the lines of the Disha Act in Andhra Pradesh, to speed up trial in cases of atrocities against women, and to give death penalty in cases of rape, violent sexual assault, gang rape, and sexual offences against minor girls and boys.
Apart from this, Pawar committed to give preference to products and services made by women self-help groups (SHG), and announced that procurement worth ₹1,000 crore for the state will come from SHGS.
A state-level training centre for employees of women and child development department and other social welfare departments will be set up in Amravati district. Girl students will be given self-defence training.
A separate allocation of ₹64.30 crore was announced to distribute good quality sanitary napkins to all girls at zilla parishad schools, and install incinerators at all secondary schools for safe disposal of used sanitary napkins.