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In Ashok Gehlot’s counter to BJP, an offer to send chartered plane for Amit Shah
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot offered to send union home minister Amit Shah a chartered plane so that he can visit Rajasthan to see how he has handled the law and order situation and end the confusion being spread by the BJP.
JAIPUR: Chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday asked Union home minister Ashok Gehlot to visit Rajasthan to see the state’s innovations in improving the law and order situation, saying he was ready to send a chartered plane for the union minister’s tour, his counter to the BJP leader who booked a train ticket for Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi so that she would echo the voice of rape survivor in the Congress-ruled state.
BJP state secretary and former parliamentary secretary Jitendra Gothwal on Sunday had booked a train ticket for Priyanka and asked her to take cognizance of a rape complaint filed by a teenager against five people including the son of a Congress MLA.
The Congress MLA’s son among others was booked by Dausa police for his alleged involvement in the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl, who said she was raped by them in February last year. The complaint was filed on Saturday. To be sure, the MLA’s son has refuted the rape allegation.
“BJP leaders repeatedly invite Priyanka Gandhi over crimes in Rajasthan though she is doesn’t hold any constitutional post,” tweeted Gehlot.
The chief minister said he was ready to send the top BJP leader a chartered plane so that he can visit Rajasthan to see how he has handled the law and order situation and end the confusion being spread by the BJP.
Gehlot said that the law and order situation in the state is better than in BJP ruled states. He said punishments have been awarded in 620 cases of child sexual abuse cases. This includes the death sentence awarded to seven accused and life imprisonment for 137.
“We do not do politics on crime like the BJP but ensure harsh punishments to the culprits,” he said.
Citing NCRB data, Gehlot said that despite the lockdown in 2020, when crimes across the country increased by 28.03% compared to 2019, Rajasthan witnessed a decline of 14.46%.
The data, he said, indicated a decline in all types of crimes including dacoity, robbery, kidnapping, rape, rioting, burglary, theft in the state in 2020. During this period, there was a 62.29% increase in crime in Amit Shah’s home state Gujarat. In the year 2021 also, there has been a decline of 4.77% in Rajasthan as compared to 2019, he said.
Gehlot said that there had been an increase in FIRs registered by the police but this was because of the policy to register all complaints.
“While implementing the compulsory FIR registration policy, we knew that crime figures will increase and the opposition and media will question it, but we implemented this policy to get justice for every victim. The faith of people in the government has increased and they are registering FIR,” said the CM.
“Police are taking every FIR to a logical end and criminals are getting punished,” he said.
Gehlot said that before the implementation of the mandatory FIR registration policy, 33.4% of FIRs relating to crimes against women were registered through courts but after the policy was introduced, the number has come down to 16%.
He said that the time taken to investigate cases relating to atrocities on women was 274 days in 2017-18 when the BJP government was in power but has now reduced to 79 days. “Additional SPs have been appointed in every district for crimes against women. Legal officers have also been appointed. All these steps have brought relief to the victims and instilled fear among the perpetrators,” he said.
Gehlot said he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the home minister to ask them to adopt the mandatory FIR registration policy in all states so that the real crime figures of all the states can come out, but so far this has not happened.
