Letters to the Editor

Crime Against Minors

This has reference to the news “Sexual crimes against minors in India up 500% : CRY” (The Sentinel, April 20, 2018). Instances of rape of children increased by 82% in 2016 in comparison to the previous year. According to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Uttar Pradesh registered a four-fold increase in such offences with the number of child rapes going up from 596 in 2015 to 2,115 in 2016.

The report, showed that 19,920 children were raped in 2016 in comparison to 10,934 in 2015.

“Crimes against children have shown increasing trend over the past three years with significant increase of 13.6% (1,06,958) in 2016 over 94,172 in 2015. Kidnapping and abduction of children accounted for 52% of the cases followed by cases under POCSO”, a release issued by the Home Ministry said. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) came into effect from 2012. Maharashtra reported the highest number of child rapes at 2,467 in 2016, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 2,292. The report also shows an over 50% rise in cases of abduction and kidnapping in 2016 in comparison to the previous year. In a first, the crime report of 2016 has included feticide cases, which were at 144. It’s not just crimes against children which saw an increase, but also number of crimes committed by juveniles increased during 2016 by 7.2%. Rapes by juveniles increased from 1,688 in 2015 to 1,903 in 2016, an almost 13% jump. Similarly, the number of murders, kidnapping, abduction and thefts increased in 2016.

The MHA release said that 20.6% (7,369) of cases under juvenile in conflict with law were reported in MP followed by 18.4% in Maharashtra (6,606) during 2016.

According to the report, 9,932 juveniles held guilty in 2016 were released on probation and placed under care of parents or guardians, while 10,019 were sent home after advice or admonition. More than 60% children who went missing in 2016 were girls, most of them in Bengal (15.1% out of 1,11,569).

It is really a matter of grave concern that crime against minors occurs everyday in our country. It is highly praiseworthy that president Ram Nath Kovind approved an ordinance to provide death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below age 12 years. The government must take some drastic measures in order to control crimes against minors.

Satish Kumar Sarma,

Kalyanpur,

Biswanath Chariali.

Decision of GU

The decision of Gauhati University not to allow the students of forthcoming TDC 6th semester examination, 2018 to simultaneously sit for BA 2nd semester examination is detrimental to the interest of students. There are scores of students who have back in single paper of 2nd semester and because of the GU decision will have to lose one precious academic year before obtaining their graduation. The victimized students are passing through nightmares leave alone mental and psychological upsets. Through the columns of your esteemed daily, we would like to urge the Vice-Chancellor of Gauhati University as well as other concerned authorities to kindly look into the matter and allow the students of TDC 6th sem having back in a single paper of 2nd semester to appear in both the examinations in the greater interest of the students community.

Some Students,

Guwahati.

Income tax

The salary holders and pensioners are most vulnerable to   income tax assessment by income tax officials. There are many pensioners who never submit income tax returns.There are many business men, politicians, builders, lawyers etc. who evade a huge quantum of income tax than their due, apart from huge benami property and unusually furnished buildings in and outside  possessed by income tax officials, chartered accountants and lawyers and the like.

On the other hand , pensioners who submit ITR regularly , are mostly victimized for silly mistake such as not submitting tax returns in due time out of ignorance for a particular assessment year or on account of their lack of knowledge about on- line submission of ITR . I would, therefore, like to request the Finance Minister,  the Income Tax department and Income Tax officials to consider the cases of such pensioners sympathetically on humanitarian ground. 

Putul  Sarma,

Bamgaon, Biswanath Chariali.