Mane approached the govt with data of acid attacks in state

MUMBAI: While a Delhi court on Thursday awarded life sentence to an accused, who hurled acid on a young woman, efforts of a Malad-based activist of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to get the issue on the government’s priority list have yet to yield any result.

Sanad Mane has written several letters to the Union government officials demanding the framing of a policy that will ensure that a victim of acid attack is not forced to live an ostracised life in a biased society. But no one except former President A P J Abdul Kalam took cognisance of his views.

Mane said, “I had written to Kalam about the social difficulties that victims of acid attack face in 2005. He not only acknowledged my letter but also replied saying that he had asked the Home Ministry to take steps in the issue. Following that, I had contacted the Home Ministry several times but they did not acknowledge having received Kalam’s letter.”

Now, Mane has requested his party’s think-tank to start a campaign on this issue, which has got his party president Raj Thackeray’s nod.

Mane has taken the initiative for a campaign to bring the seriousness of the issue to the fore. “In our society an acid attack victim suffers a lot of prejudices. Most often, she loses her career and martial life, apart from living a lonely existence.

While the option of plastic surgery is too expensive, no insurance firm provides cover for an acid attack,” said Mane. In fact, he has collected data of all the acid attacks in Maharashtra in the last decade. According to him, 36 women have suffered acid attacks during this period.