Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that the state has recorded a sharp decline in crime against women and children.
Citing the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Sarma said that the state has witnessed a remarkable 50% decrease in its overall crime rate since 2021.
The CM attributed the significant drop in crime against women and children to the state government’s firm commitment to combat crime through systemic reforms in law enforcement.
Sarma said that the drastic reduction in crime against women and children is testimony to the stringent actions initiated by the state law enforcement agencies against the perpetrators involved in such cases.
The CM cited figures from the 2022 NCRB report to highlight the decline in reported cases of crime against women and children.
According to the report, Assam registered 14,148 cases of crime against women and children in 2022 as against the 29,046 cases lodged in 2021. Similarly, crime against children decreased from 5,282 cases in 2021 to 4,084 cases in 2022. Besides, instances of human trafficking dropped from 203 cases in 2021 to 140 cases in 2022.
However, despite the decline in cases of crime against women and children, an alarming surge has been noticed in cases of corruption. Assam saw a substantial increase in cases registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code in 2022.
The state reported 57 corruption cases in 2022 as against the 16 cases reported in both 2020 and 2021.
Unfortunately, nearly 95% of these 57 cases remained pending before the courts by the end of the last year.
Among the cases registered in 2022, 50 were trap cases involving government officials caught accepting bribes while the remaining cases involved allegations of disproportionate assets (four cases) and criminal misconduct (three cases).