CPI (M) demands Joshi’s resignation

Reacting to the Deoria women shelter home incident, the state unit of Communist Party of Indian (Marxists) demanded the resignation of Social Welfare Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi for not acting in time. 

It also demanded a CBI probe into the case saying that the monitoring of the case be done by the Supreme Court or High Court judge. The party will stage demonstrations at all district headquarters across the state to protest the incident on August 9.  

CPI (M) leader and state secretary Heera Lal Yadav questioned the BJP government as to how it remained in the dark about the ongoing immoral practices at the shelter home even as the NGO was banned for the last three years. He also questioned how the local police handed over the girl rescued by it to such an NGO. “The trauma that the girls faced at the shelter home in Deoria is one of the most brutal and shocking incidents and its gravity is no less than the Muzaffarpur incident,” Yadav added. 

The CPI (M) leader expressed surprise over the BJP government defence on the issue and said that such an inhuman act was not possible without the support of officials and political patronage. “It is hard to believe that such immoral acts continued to happen for the last three years and top officials and Social Welfare Minister were not in the know of the malpractices,” he said. The state secretary said that criminals were showing all the audacity and the government was barely taking action against them. 

“Criminal elements have strong access to the power corridors and it would not be a hyperbole if it is said that it is they who are running the government. A lack of action against such persons was encouraging them,” he opined.

Yadav said that the seriousness of the case was no less than the Muzaffarpur incident and akin to Bihar government’s decision to get the case monitored by a judge of Supreme Court or High Court, the UP government should also do the same. 

The CPI (M) leader said that shelter homes were proving to be horror homes and there might be similar malpractices going on at other shelter homes in UP. “The government should ensure round-the-clock monitoring of such shelter homes to save children, especially girls, from further trauma,” he said.