Andhra Pradesh CM holds high-level meeting on implementation of Disha Act

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India], October 5 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday held a high-level review meeting on Law and Order and discussed on Disha Act.
The minister discussed the implementation of the Disha Act, special courts for criminal investigations against women and children, measures for reducing the crime rate, strengthening of police forces and drug menace.
Reviewing the Disha Act and Disha App, the Chief Minister opined that it is not fair to keep it pending so long even after Assembly passing the Disha Bill and directed the officials to look into the issue and take action accordingly.
He directed the officials to ensure that the Bill completes the due process, and make sure that every woman downloads Disha App on her phone.
Collectors and SPs of all districts were told to pay special attention to Disha and involve volunteers along with women police for conducting an extensive campaign on the use of the Disha application.
He emphasised creating conditions for victims to come forward to file a complaint and told them to focus on adopting a flexible system to ensure the victim has secure conditions. The authorities have informed that currently, 10 courts are working to hear POCSO cases, 12 courts are hearing crimes against women and a total of 16 courts will be available by December, where a new court is being set up in Kadapa.
The Chief Minister ordered to appoint public prosecutors to fill all the vacancies and monitor their performance regularly. So far 74,13,562 have downloaded Disha App, where 5238 have sought assistance through App and 684 FIRs were registered through App in 2021.
The police said that all the crime hotspots are being mapped and informed that all Disha Police Stations have received ISO certification.
They said that it used to take 189 days to investigate crimes against women in 2017, but now a charge sheet is being filed in just 42 days because of Disha Act, where zero FIRs are also being registered.
The Police stated that earlier there was a situation of having to wait for a year to get a DNA report and now the report will come in two days due to the increase in forensic facilities. The officials also said that 2652 cases were handled through Disha One-Stop Centers till September this year and placed 51,053 CC cameras in all temples.
Further, the Chief Minister directed the authorities to focus on providing justice to the victims at the earliest and to act with a humanitarian perspective when unfortunate incidents occur against women.
He told them to see that the compensation is being provided to the affected families within a month of the incident. Also reviewing cybercrime, he asked the officials to prepare a special action plan for the prevention of cybercrimes by appointing competent officers and including efficient lawyers.
During the review, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials to take immediate action in making Colleges and Universities as drug-free, by keeping constant supervision. He ordered the authorities to review if there are drug cases, by mapping the colleges and further told them to pay special attention to drug peddling.
He asked to submit a report on this once every four weeks and prepare an action plan to curb the drug menace, especially in educational institutions. He stated that the opposition leaders have been falsely propagating a drug deal that is not connected to the State.
He said that the opposition is acting irresponsibly aiming to tarnish the image of the police department, government as well as the people. Despite the fact that the drugs scandal is not true, a few media houses and websites are promoting fake news. He told the officials to be vigilant about such matters.
Besides these, the Chief Minister instructed the authorities to pay special attention to illegal manufacturing and supply of alcohol in the State and said that police should also focus on the issue along with SEB. He said that about 15,000 women police have been deployed in village and ward secretariats and asked the officials to train them by December this year.
In addition to these, he told the officials to focus on recruiting 6,000-7,000 police in the coming year. Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, DGP Goutham Sawang, and other officials were present.