MUMBAI: Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio, has claimed a reduction in serious offenses in the state this year by 3% and a rise in the conviction rate by 3.2% over the corresponding period of last year. According to him, offenses against women had also declined by 3.6% over the last year. Regarding cases against activists of the Maratha agitation, he said except for 53 offenses of serious nature, the rest, over 220, were in the process of withdrawal.
To allegations of awarding tenders at 25% to 45% inflated costs, Fadnavis said the tenders for new highways and ring roads in Pune, Nagpur, and Mumbai were yet to be awarded by the MSRDC and would be scrutinized before their approval by the expert high-power committee. He said the base price tendered for these projects was of 2018 and hence could not be inflated. Meanwhile, in response to a query over road works in Mumbai, Fadnavis said except for road concretization work in Mumbai city, the rest of the concretization work was going on smoothly in the suburbs. He was replying to a debate on the last date of the state legislature’s monsoon session on Friday.
“Though the criminal offenses appear to have increased as they also include the ones registered under preventive actions, the serious criminal offenses such as murder, molestation, robbery, housebreaking, and rioting had declined by over 3%. Also, the rate of conviction had improved by 3.2% over last year,” he said, pointing out that in the cases of kidnapping of children, nearly 73% of children had returned to their homes.
Fadnavis said in 2021, the amount of solved criminal cases against women was 92%, while in 2024, the same percentage was over 95.60% so far, which is nothing but a rise in the success rate in resolving cases by over 3.5%. Pointing out that close members of the families of the victim are mostly involved in rape cases, Fadnavis said in 2022, 99% of cases saw kin and friends of the families involved, while in 2023 and 2024 till now, the same percentage was 99.28% and 99.36%, respectively.
Fadnavis claimed that the rate of resolving all types of cases against women within sixty days of the crime was 91% in 2023, while the same had reached 93% this year compared to the corresponding period. He said it is his government that has taken one of the most stringent actions against sand mafias by arresting nearly 1849 of them. According to him, the Mahayuti government had created a record of sorts by recruiting over 42,000 new police staff. To a query over BDD housing and Dharavi projects, Fadnavis said the government was positively considering offering new flats under BDD redevelopment at construction cost and said residents and small-scale entrepreneurs in Dharavi will be settled in Dharavi itself.