Pawan Kumar Bansal, former union minister and former MP, has expressed shock over the incident of rape of 12-year old girl on Independence Day. He has termed the incident as shameful and disgrace to all mandated to preserve law and order.

In a statement issued here, Bansal said, this shocking news came on a day when the nation was celebrating seventieth anniversary its freedom, but it is sad and disheartening that girls in this city, which was considered to be safe, are being subjected to harassment and abuse. He said, this only exposes the callousness of the local leadership which is more concerned about getting cheap publicity on 'non-existent achievements'.
 
"What is becoming of Chandigarh? 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padao' is being torn to smithereens. The city is on the way to earning a dubious distinction of an 'unsafe-women' capital. Now when the BJP is ruling in city and centre, their leaders have no moral ground to applaud themselves and should accept their complete failure in ensuring the safety of women in the city", said Bansal.

The former city MP said that it was just a week when the stalking case in the city had shaken the whole country and that incident was followed by another case of a scooter riding girl becoming the victim of a similar attempt and now this incident has taken place and that too with a minor in children's park. He said that while the government makes tall claims of empowering women as never before, the reality is that an environment of fear prevails for women on roads, parks and even markets where cases of chain snatching are on the rise.

Bansal said that the crime rate has increased so much in the city that parents are now scared to send their daughters alone with such horrific incidents of crime being committed in broad daylight. Crime against children in Chandigarh has gone up, which happens to be three times the national average and kidnapping and abduction cases are four times more in the city, he added.