By IANS,
Agartala : The Tripura government Monday held its first all-party meet which suggested ways to curb growing crimes against women, officials said.
Leaders of 12 political parties participated in the meeting.
“The Tripura government has already taken a series of measures to check crimes against women and children. Three all-women police stations are already functioning and women helpdesks are operational in all the 70 police stations,” an official of the Tripura home department told reporters.
He added: “The Left Front government has decided to recruit more women police personnel to deal with crimes against women.”
“More all-women police stations would be set up soon to give confidence to women to approach law enforcing agencies without hesitation,” the official added.
The all-party meeting was called following a demand from the opposition Congress in the last assembly session.
According to the last report of the National Crimes Record Bureau published recently, Tripura ranks second after Assam in number of crimes against women in northeast India.
Women’s organisations believe that low conviction rate, lack of prompt action by police and victims shying from lodging complaints resulted in rise in crimes against women.
According to an official document, the conviction rate in Tripura is 15 percent against the national average of over 35 percent.
Under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, over 1,015 cases were registered with authorities during the past three years in Tripura. The state has a population of 3.7 million, of which nearly half are women.
Tripura Police Accountability Commission chairman A.B. Paul said that the panel has suggested punitive action against some erring police officials in cases of crimes against women.