377 websites hosting child porn material taken down
As many as 377 websites hosting child pornography have been taken down, while 50 FIRs have been filed in these cases, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said on Thursday. The Union Minister's statement came as she urged the immediate reporting of such websites in order to take swift action on it.
The methodology of reporting such incidents is being shared with the district administration for prompt action, Smriti Irani said as she intervened on a Zero Hour mention by Vijila Sathyananth (AIADMK) on the rise in child abuse cases due to easy access to pornography on mobile phones and Internet.
"377 websites have been taken down and 50 FIRs filed," Smriti Irani said.
Sathyananth cited recent incidents of sexual assault of minor girls to seek a complete ban on the Internet and social media carrying such content so as to "save our children."
She said there are rising crimes against children due to easy access to pornography. Irani said she would have the administration act immediately if details of incidents are provided.
In a separate Zero Hour mention, GVL Narasimha Rao (BJP) raised the issue of English being made a medium of education up to Class VIth in Andhra Pradesh saying the move undermines regional languages and should be reviewed.
"It has to be reviewed because it has been criticised from all quarters," he said, adding the use of Telugu as an education medium doesn't mean fluency cannot be acquired over English.
Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar (TDP) said the Central government has to give instruction for review of the order.
Questioning the disinvestment drive of the government, Sanjay Singh (AAP) said employee interest is being threatened with the recent move to privatise PSUs such as Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), Shipping Corp of India (SCI) and Container Corp of India (Concor).
He questioned the rationale to sell profitable companies but was cut short midway by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu who said the admitted Zero Hour mention pertained to woes of workers and he should have focused on that.
Viplove Thakur (Cong) wanted a review of the scheme for providing mid-day meals to school children to determine the nutrition value of the food being provided.
Ahamed Hassan (TMC) raised the "pathetic" condition of the campus of Aligarh Muslim University set up in four states.
The Murshidabad campus in West Bengal neither has a building nor a hostel and 500 students are studying in four departments in temporary sheds, he said.
AK Selvaraj (AIADMK) wanted NAFED to set up a copra procurement center in Coimbatore while Banda Prakash (TRS) wanted Rs 1,000 crore allocation for the textile park at Warangal in Telangana.
V Vijayasai Reddy (YRS-Congress) voiced concern over the recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines for mandatory verification of CIBIL score for extending loans to farmers, saying this was leading to loans being rejected.
K Somaprasad (CPM) demanded removing family income ceiling of Rs 2.5 lakh for availing SC/ST scholarship for students, saying the cap was too low and leading to exclusion of students.
SC/ST students should be given scholarship without any family income ceiling and the grant be raised to Rs 1,000 per year, he said.
Ahmad Asfaque Karim (RJD) raised the issue of Rs 55,000 crore unclaimed funds lying with Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and said beneficiaries should be identified and their dues paid to them.
While Amar Patnaik (BJD) wanted teledensity in Odisha to be increased, Narendra Jadhav (Nominated) wanted the Parliamentary calender decided at the start of the year just like it is done in matured democracies world over.
(With PTI inputs)
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