With claims of Government going tough on acid attacks, only one FIR has been registered in the entire State of UP with regard to violation of regulations for sale of acid and other inflammable substances. This has brought to light through the information provided by the deputy secretary, Home Department to RTI activist Dr Nutan Thakur. Nutan had sought information in the wake of Supreme Court order and the action taken.
UP is most notorious for acid attacks. According to Government reports, out of 310 total acid attack cases reported across India, 186 are from Uttar Pradesh. last month, there was a report on in-laws pouring acid over a woman for dowry.
As per the information given by the Home Department, there are 118 licencees for sale of acid in various districts of UP. The highest number is 11 licencee each in Mirzapur and Bhadohi, followed by 10 in Farrukhabad and 9 in lucknow and Varanasi. Incidentally, 50 districts of UP have no licence for acid sale, which includes districts like Agra, Bareilly and Kanpur Nagar, while Ghaziabad and Noida have 1 licencee each.
As per the information, 346 meetings took place in UP for publicising the regulations on acid sale, of which 23 took place in Meerut and 22 in Siddharthnagar. The district teams undertook 343 inspections, of which 66 were in Rai Bareli, 48 in Firozabad and 29 in Etah, while there is no licencee in either of these districts. A total 12 irregularities were found in these inspections, out of which one FIR was registered in Kasganj while an illegal stock was sealed in Raebareli.