Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: In a recommendation stoking controversy, a committee of the Karnataka Legislature has proposed a ban on mobile phones in schools and colleges as a step to curb incidents like rape.
Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Sanjay Gandhi refused to respond to the recommendation, saying rape is a serious issue.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, meanwhile, said that he does not think the use advance technology affects behavior of children.
Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar, however, said mobile phones should not be allowed in campuses.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that it was not mobile phone but dirty mentality which was responsible for rising incidents of rape.
He further said that such recommendation gives excuse to people with criminal mentality.
Congress Party leader Manish Tewari discarded the report as weird and laughable, while another Congress leader Rashid Alvi called it unfortunate to make such statements in the times of such advanced science and technology.
The Legislature Committee on Women and Child Welfare has said: “Karnataka government should direct the Education Department to impose a compulsory ban on students in schools and colleges bringing mobile phones.”
The single-point recommendation in the report of the 23-member committee headed by Shakuntala Shetty, tabled in both the Houses of Karnataka legislature yesterday, is contained under a chapter under the title, "rape/missing cases of women".
The report refers to the rising incidents of rape across the country and cites, the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and fatal assault of a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern as also the recent gang rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh, which have made "Indians hang their heads in shame before the entire world."
"We have found during our interactions that mobile is the reason behind kidnap and rape among school and college going girls," Shetty said, defending the panel`s controversial findings and recommendations.
