Lack of intellect reason behind Haryana rapes: Cong MLA

Chandigarh: With a lot being said over a series of rapes in Haryana over a month, a Congress MLA today gave a new dimension to the tale by noting that such cases take place due to lack of “intellectual growth” in society. “The society has witnessed new dimensions of growth, but the intellectual growth has not yet taken place resulting in such incidents in the society,” Former minister and sitting MLA from Nalwa Assembly segment Sampat Singh said. [caption id=“attachment_491640” align=“alignnone” width=“380”]  Representational image. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] Noting that such cases are a cause of “grave concern”, he, however,  said incidents of rape occur all over the country but opposition is highlighting cases in Haryana alone. He also expressed the need for combined efforts to put an end to such incidents. “To curb this evil, there is a need to bring about a positive change in the thinking of the people rather than amending the law,” Sampat said. He also targeted INLD President Om Prakash Chautala for his alleged remarks regarding reducing marriageable age for girls to curb rapes. “The incidents of rape would not decrease by reducing age of marriage to 15 to 16 years,” he said. Asserting that Haryana government was taking steps to check such crimes, Sampat advised BJP and Left parties to shift focus to other states “as NCRB figures point out that such incidents are more” some non-Congress ruled states. Singh also gave figures to substantiate his claims. On opposition’s demand for a special Assembly session over the issue, he said there was no need of the same, and alleged that the opposition had no “serious matter” to discuss. Meanwhile reacting on the comments, INLD’s leader Ajay Chautala accused Sampat of trying to “justify” the increasing cases of crime against women in the state. “We strongly condemn his statement in which he has tried to justify growing incidents of crime against women in Haryana by blaming it on lack of intellectual growth in Haryana,” Chautala said here. Claiming that there was complete breakdown of law and order machinery in the state, Chautala said even SC/ST commission Chairman P L Punia had recently pulled up the state government for failing to deal with such cases. “Now, Sampat Singh is giving out figures to justify that rapes are occuring more in other states and less in Haryana,” he said. PTI