May 22, 2019:
Even after the Supreme Court (SC) orders of 2013 and 2015 followed by Uttar Pradesh (UP) government’s directive on May 10, 2016, with regard to sale and purchase of acid in the state to curb attacks, not a single district has provided data of acid stocks on a monthly basis to the state government. This was revealed in an RTI filed by Chhanv Foundation recently.
NCRB data states that a total of 208 people suffered from acid attacks in UP between 2011 and 2016. Speaking to TOI, Durga Prasad Shukla, a board member of Chhanv Foundation which also runs Sheroes café and provides shelter to acid attack survivors in Noida, Agra and Lucknow, said, “The home department sent several reminders citing Supreme Court and Allahabad high court orders to 75 districts, but as per our RTI records, the districts failed to provide any data.”
“According to both SC and state government order, each district administration needs to compile data of registered acid seller, and the seller needs to maintain a register mentioning the names of buyers along with photo copy of identity card, the reason for purchase of acid and quantity of acid. No acid or corrosive chemical should be sold to anyone below 18 years. The seller must also provide its stock data to SDM after every 15 days. If the SDM found any breach of order, he can fine Rs 50,000. This entire data then needs to be sent as fax or emailed to home department every month by the seventh date or end of first week,” Shukla said.
According to state government order, 19 types of corrosive chemicals such as Hydrochloric acid, Sulfuric acid, Nitric acid, Mercury fluoride and other acids can only be sold with proper identification of buyer and declaration about the reason for the procurement.
“Unfortunately, barring Ghaziabad which claimed, in the RTI reply, that they have seven registered acid retailers who provide the stock to SDM after every 15 days, the remaining 74 districts have failed to execute the state government’s order. Ghaziabad district administration also accepted that they haven’t provided data to home department,” claimed Shukla, citing RTI replies from the district administrations.
The state government order also asked the district authorities to provide data about the number of meetings held with respect to acid attack, but all failed to provide any information.
Shukla added, “In states like Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, the maximum number of survivors are male in comparison to UP. But, in UP there is no provision or board to compensate male survivors. Earlier, a male survivor had to knock the Allahabad HC’s doors for help. In UP, the Rani Laxmi Bai Mahila Samna Kosh which comes under state women and development department keeps a tab on compensation amount for survivors. But it is paid after a lot of delay. According to the SC order, the survivor needs to be paid Rs 1 lakh in 15 days of the incident and the remaining amount of Rs 2 lakh in two or three months. However, there are long delays in the state department."
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