Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday accused the government of withholding the publication of the annual crime report compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
The annual ‘Crime in India’ report for the year 2016 was last released in 2017. The reports of 2017 and 2018 are yet to be published.
A senior government official said except two States, 27 others had sent the requisite data for the compilation of the 2017 report. The official said the lackadaisical repsonse by West Bengal and Bihar in sending crime data has also contributed to the indefinite delay in final publication of the report.
“West Bengal finally sent the requisite data in the prescribed format after a lot of persuasion,” said the official.
Mr. Azad, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said, “The NCRB report has not been published after 2016. This is a new tradition that if the findings of the report are against the government, it will not be tabled in Parliament at all. This was the case with the leaked NSSO report as well which said that unemployment was at a 45-year-high.”
Mr. Azad said since the findings of the NSSO report was against the government, it wasn’t released before the elections as it would have led to loss of votes of the youth.
In 2017-18, the NCRB in consultation with States and other stakeholders had revised the forms for the Crime in India report to add new categories.
Earlier, as many as 35% crimes remained in the “unclassified” category. The addition of new “crime heads” reduced the unclassified category to 15% of overall crime data, said an official. Some of the new categories included were: crime against media persons, RTI and social activists, besides persons belonging to Northeast States.
It will also include crimes by saints, khap panchayat, security guards, proclaimed offenders, persons of political party, illegal immigrants; those committed in schools; those committed by government officials, besides cyber crimes against women and children. For the first time, crimes by Northeast insurgents, Left Wing Extremists and Terrorists will be included in the report.
“There were several inconsistencies and errors provided by States and Union Territories and they were requested to send correct data,” a status report maintained by the NCRB said.
