To provide immediate help to people, particularly women in distress, the Delhi Police have increased the lines to its helpline ‘100’ from 60 to 100, while women specific helpline ‘1091’ has also been augmented from two to 10. It has also been decided to merge anti-stalking helpline ‘1096’ and helpline ‘1091’ to take the total number of telephone lines to 14.
Similarly, GPS devices have been installed in 12,000 autos and all DTC and cluster buses and connected with the centralised control room to provide safe public transport facility to Delhiites. The Delhi Police on Thursday told this at the second meeting of the Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh-headed Special Task Force constituted to look into the safety issues of women in Delhi and review the functioning of Delhi Police.
The STF was told that the Delhi Transport Department has issued instructions that all remaining public vehicles should have GPS devices by April this year, while it was decided that the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Delhi Police will take up the case with telecom authorities so that the location of the tower and the caller in distress particularly women are available to the PCR van immediately.
The STF was also told that there are 4,627 notified bus-stops in Delhi, of which 1,407 are properly lit while lighting work at another 288 bus-stops will be completed this month. The Home Secretary has asked the Delhi Police to speed up verification work of public vehicles and start impounding the vehicles violating the revised permit conditions with immediate effect.
The issues of photo identity card for public service vehicle crew, CCTV/webcam at parking and shopping malls, verification of school bus staff, vulnerable bus routes and street-lighting were also reviewed by the STF. Delhi Police informed that women help desk at all police stations was fully operational. The Delhi Commission for Women stated that they have prepared a list of volunteers and would start deploying them at women help desk in consultation with the Delhi Police.
