CPI(M) welcomes J S Verma panel recommendations

Panel has asked the govt to get the changes needed in the existing laws passed in the Budget Session

Welcoming the recommendations of the Justice J S Verma Committee on crime against women, the CPI(M) today asked the government to get the changes needed in the existing laws passed in the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament.

"The concrete recommendations concerning changes in the rape and sexual harassment laws should be placed and passed in the forthcoming session of Parliament," the party Politburo said in a statement here.

It also demanded setting up of a multi-ministerial committee with a time-bound mandate of one month to look into other recommendations concerning different agencies, including those relating to police reform, changes in the Peoples' Representative Act or those on khap panchayats.

The issues to be looked in to by this committee should also include the recommendations on bringing armed forces personnel under the purview of criminal laws and withdrawing protection under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or on improving the conditions in juvenile homes or on facilities for disabled women.

The CPI(M), while complimenting the Verma Committee for the "excellent work" and finishing it before time, said its report and recommendations were comprehensive and "situate sexual violence against women within a broader framework of socio-economic conditions and issues concerning governance, the law, politics and social attitudes and the reforms required to ensure justice for women."

The major Left party sought an Action Taken Report on these recommendations so that urgent reforms required in the areas mentioned by the Verma committee can be taken forward. PTI ARC