Congress slams Centre's 'complete insensitivity over child rape cases'

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday lashed out at the BJP led Central government over its "complete insensitivity" and "apathy" towards the child rape cases.

"Complete insensitivity and apathy by the BJP Govt at the Centre forced the Supreme Court to take 'suo motu' notice of more than 24,000 child rape cases in the past six months," Congress party Communications In-Charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement.

He also claimed such cases have a dismal disposal rate.

"As per the data collated by the Court, 24,212 FIRs have been registered from January 1, 2019, to June 30, 2019, regarding Child Rape. Out of the same only, 911 cases have been disposed of. This is 4 per cent of the total. BJP ruled Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of FIRs registered at 3457 and it has only disposed of 22 FIRs which is a minuscule 3 per cent of the total FIRs registered," Surjewala said in his statement.

The Congress spokesperson said that "distressing figure" of 24,000 child rape cases in six months raises a "multitude of questions" and the BJP government cannot "shed and run away from its responsibility" of answering them.

"Is it not true that the BJP Govt only spends 5 paise per girl child for 'Beti Bachao' Campaign? Is it not true that the BJP Govt has deliberately concealed the NCRB Data since 2016 and has not published any 'Crime Against Women' data in the past 3 years? The last NCRB Data i.e of the year 2016 on Child Rapes [POSCO Cases] records an astounding figure of 90,000 pending cases of sexual crimes against children," he said.

Surjewala questioned as to why the BJP government is hiding this data.

He also alleged that the Central and the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh remained mute spectators even as the incidents of women and children being raped took place.

"Is it not true that that the BJP government at Centre and in Uttar Pradesh remained mute spectators, even as growing incidents of women and children being raped and/or killed on the streets, even dragged from their homes in the middle of night, gang-raped and burnt alive took place in Aligarh, Pratapgarh, Gorakhpur, Barabanki, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Kushinagar, Muzaffarnagar and many other towns?" he asked.