DIMAPUR, AUGUST 27 (MExN): The Watsϋ Mungdang, in an open letter to the Chief Minister of Nagaland, has requested the state government to set up a Juvenile Home in Mokokchung at the earliest. The letter, signed by the President and General Secretary of the Mungdang, stated that Mokokchung has become a crowded town that houses people from all over the country where “every kind of crime like theft, rape, drug and alcohol abuse, immorality, etc. is committed almost every day mostly by the juveniles.” This has given rise to the need for an additional juvenile home in Nagaland.
Nagaland state has only one Juvenile Home in Pherima which makes it “too difficult to escort the offenders and it is not easy to solve the problems to escort those offenders within a day or a few hours after they are brought to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB). It needs at least some time to hear their cases and give the verdict, so the problem of accommodating them during this period, has no answer at all at the present juncture,” explains the letter. The juvenile justice system in India does not allow juvenile delinquents to be housed with adult prisoners in jails or police lock-up.
Section 16 of the Juvenile Justice Law directs the government or voluntary organisations to set up Observation Homes or Special Homes for juveniles in conflict-with-law in every District Head Quarters or more where ever required. Such a home in Mokokchung would, then, help neighbouring districts till more are set up in other districts too.
To this effect, the Watsϋ Mungdang had also submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Nagaland in March 2010.
