Pune, Jun 29 (IANS): In a startling revelation, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar on Thursday said that thousands of women or girls have ‘disappeared’ in Maharashtra in the past one year or so, raising serious questions on the law and order situation in the state.
“It has been one year since this new government (of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis) came to power in Maharashtra. The state is facing many issues, but law and order is at the top. Attacks on women and girls are the biggest concern and are increasing day by day everywhere,” said Pawar.
Citing official figures collected from various municipal corporations, police commissionerates and rural police headquarters, he said that over 6,889 women/girls are missing in the past one year, May 2022-May 2023.
Reeling off specific details, Pawar said that in the first half of 2023, between Jan. 23-May 23, a total of 2,458 girls/women are mysteriously off the radar in four major municipalities of the state.
They comprise: 738 from Mumbai, 937 from Pune, 721 from Thane and 62 from Solapur, while the information on missing women/girls from the 10 other civic corporations was not available. From the state’s 36 districts, a total of 4,431 females have disappeared from 14 districts of Amravati, Beed, Bhandara, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Dhule, Gondia, Jalgaon, Nandurbar, Nanded, Pune, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Washim, as per the details from the local police.
In the past one year -- May 2022-May2023, a whopping 6,889 women/girls have gone missing in the state with no information on their whereabouts, said Pawar.
“This is a very serious matter… The state Home Minister should take measures for the safety of our daughters and sisters instead of just making statements. There is a need to trace them out and it’s the government’s responsibility to hand them over to their families,” he demanded.
Pawar also slammed the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party regime – which will celebrate its first anniversary in office on Friday (June30) – for the spate of riots that have erupted in different parts of the state in the past few months, on which the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT have also raised questions in the past.
Terming these as "planned", he contended that the riots broke out in Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Akola and other places, and said it needs to be probed whether these clashes and disturbances were allegedly being engineered keeping in mind the upcoming civic, parliament and assembly elections.