Mandi worst, Solan at second spot on violent crimes index
Ambika Sharma
Solan, December 5
Mandi district is the worst performer followed by Solan in the violent crime index-2022, which takes three crimes — rape, murder and dowry deaths – into account.
Among all three crimes, the number of cases registered for dowry deaths is the least in all districts. The data has been standardised with per 10,000 of the population. The state has 12 districts where two tribal districts reflect contrasting pictures.
The results released recently by the Economic and Statistics Department indicate that the tribal district of Lahaul Spiti has a low crime rate and its violent crime score stood at 0.999. A high violent crime score indicated lower crime rate. The other tribal district of Kinnaur, however, figures at the 10th position in the crime index indicting a higher crime rate.
Hamirpur stood at 11th position in the index with 0.927 score followed by Bilaspur at 0.798, Kangra at 0.770, Chamba at 0.769 and Shimla at 0.753. These six districts exhibited low crime rate than the state’s average index of 0.668.
The other six districts comparatively indicate a higher crime rate which was also higher than the state’s average crime index. Kullu district has a crime index score of 0.650 followed by Una (0.601), Sirmaur (0.577), Kinnaur (0.444), Solan (0.380) and Mandi with a score of 0.361.
The gap between the top and lower performer districts is 0.629 points and the gap between the state’s average and lowest performer district is 0.307 points which is a sizable difference.
Solan district comprises two police districts of Solan and Baddi with cases of crime against women being high in the latter. A majority of them are attributed to the migrant population, which work in the industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh. The area houses more than 90 per cent of the state’s industries.
The working of the Baddi police was already under the scanner after the high court ordered the transfer of a DSP and a SHO in a criminal case and the CCTV footage of 39 days pertaining to the investigation of the same case went mysteriously missing from the Nalagarh police station recently. Not only has an FIR been registered in this case, but the working of the staff has come under scanner. Questions have also been raised at the working of the women police station in Baddi for inept handling of some cases.
