Lower juvenile age limit to 16 years: Haryana minister

Chandigarh: Joining in the debate to lower juvenile age limit, Haryana Minister Ajay Singh Yadav on Saturday said upper age limit for juvenile offenders should be reduced from 18 to 16 years to effectively deal with growing cases of sexual assaults against women. Speaking to reporters at a function here, the state Forest minister said in cases of heinous crimes such as the recent case of gang-rape in Delhi, the accused should be hanged and in other such cases there should be at least life imprisonment. The minister also agreed with the view that those involved in cases of sexual assault should be socially boycotted. In reply to a question to whether the Haryana government has any proposal to merge Departments of Forests and Environment, Yadav, who holds the charge of both Departments, denied any such proposal of the state government. He said 466 forests guards would be recruited as these posts had been lying vacant. The state has a total of 1642 sanctioned posts of forest guards, he added. PTI