Maharashtra cabinet clears draft bill for 'Shakti Act'

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Cabinet on Wednesday (December 9) approved the introduction of two draft bills pertaining to the prevention of incidents of violence and atrocities against women and children in the state. The bills, to be introduced in the assembly session, that is scheduled to begin here on December 14, was approved by a State Cabinet meeting presided by Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The "Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill, 2020" has been drafted along the lines of the Andhra Pradesh Disha Act Criminal Law (AP Amendment) Act, 2019. Once passed by the state legislature it will be called the "Shakti Act".

The second draft bill, which is meant for the implementation of the Shakti legislation, has been named as Special Court and Machinery for Implementation of Maharashtra Criminal Law, 2020."Today the Cabinet discussed the Shakti Act and cleared the draft bill to amend sections of Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

The two draft bills will be tabled in the State Legislature during the winter session next week. Once the State Legislature approves the two drafts, we will send it to the Centre for Presidential assent," Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said."This draft talks about death punishment for offenders of heinous crimes against Women and Children," he said.

Yashomati Thakur, Women and Child Development Minister said:" It`s a historic decision. This law will help us protect women and children of our State."Meanwhile, other decisions were taken in the Cabinet meeting. Under the General Administration-Service Department, the Cabinet approved to table an annual report of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission of 2018-2019 in the upcoming session.

In combination with the MGNREGA scheme, the Maharashtra government will also implement the "Sharad Pawar Gram Samrudhi Yojana" as a state scheme for National Rural Employment Guarantee. The bill related to the establishment of the `International Sports University Maharashtra, 2020` was also passed and a nod was given for the making of a self-supporting university, by the name of `DY Patil Agriculture and Technical University` in Kolhapur.

Earlier last week, the Cabinet had cleared a proposal to rename all residential colonies having caste-based names. Cabinet Minister Aslam Sheikh said that these caste-based colonies were established during British rule, to divide people and it has been now decided to rename them on people who undertook social service for the country. Meanwhile, the government has decided that the winter session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly will be held in Nagpur instead of Mumbai this time.

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