377 websites hosting child porn material taken down

As many as 377 websites hosting child pornography material have been taken down and 50 FIRs filed, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani said on Thursday (November 28) as she urged immediate reporting so that swift action can be taken.

Intervening on a Zero Hour mention by Vijila Sathyananth (AIADMK) on rise in child abuse cases due to easy access to pornography on mobile phones and Internet, Irani said methodology of reporting such incidents is being shared with the district administration for prompt action. She said, “377 websites have been taken down and 50 FIRs filed.”

Sathyananth cited recent incidents of sexual assault of minor girls to seek complete ban on 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 6 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 use of Telugu as an education medium doesn’t mean fluency cannot be acquired over English.

Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar (TDP) said 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 meal 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 centre in Coimbatore while Banda Prakash (TRS) wanted ₹1,000 crore allocation for textile park at Warangal
in Telengana. 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 ₹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 ₹1,000 per year, he said.

Ahmad Asfaque Karim (RJD) raised the issue of ₹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.