HC slams DMRC over ‘inefficiency’ of its officials

Pulls up authority for not being able to quickly locate mentally challenged woman who went missing

July 19, 2017 01:46 am | Updated 01:46 am IST - New Delhi

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) was on Tuesday pulled up by the Delhi High Court for trying to “cover up” the “inefficiency and ineptitude” of its officials, who failed to locate a 19-year-old mentally challenged woman after she got separated from her family while travelling on the metro.

Woman located

The woman, who went missing on April 21, was found wandering in Rewari district of Haryana on Monday by a policeman. He took her to a Child Welfare Committee, the court was told by the Delhi Police on Tuesday. The court also directed that standard operating procedure (SOP) be put in place to deal with such situations.

Pleased with the efforts of the police and the “good Samaritan” who helped the woman, a Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Najmi Waziri did not mince words when it came to how the DMRC conducted itself in the matter. The Bench told the DMRC that the responsibility of its officials was not limited to collection of revenue but also included providing safety and security to the nearly 30 lakh commuters who travel regularly by the metro. It was angered by the fact that the station controller of Adarsh Nagar station could not locate the woman, who was on the premises for nearly seven minutes, despite running past her, as per the CCTV footage.

It was further displeased by an affidavit filed by the DMRC chief security commissioner stating that it has issued a show cause notice to the station controller but would not be taking any action against him as he took all bona fide and immediate necessary steps to locate the woman. The Bench said the DMRC officials had “miserably failed” to inform the police when they came to know that the woman has been separated from her family at Jahangirpuri metro station.

Displeased by affidavit

The court was also displeased by the submission in the affidavit that the station controller was not trained to deal with such a situation. “If you [the DMRC] are not fit or trained, remove yourself from there [operations]. There are enough trained personnel around who can do the job. She was on the station for seven minutes. What was your man doing with his eyes? Was he daydreaming? Your officer ran past her. She was walking back and forth in the station,” the court said.

“This smacks of a cover up,” the Bench said, after perusing the affidavit which said the station controller had taken all necessary steps to trace the woman.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.