The States and Union Territories that have failed to put in place steps to make public transport systems safe for women will not be eligible for getting their quota of new buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the Union Urban Development Ministry has decided.
The Ministry has asked all the States and Union Territories to spell out the initiatives taken by them to make transport systems safe for women.
Details have also been sought on how the States propose to implement new plans for women’s safety that can be financed by the Rs. 1,000-crore Nirbhaya Fund, which was announced by the Centre in the 2013 Union budget.
In January, the Ministry wrote to all Chief Secretaries to ensure public transport systems are safe for women; it had asked for buses, autos and taxis to be fitted with intelligent transport systems (ITS) like cameras and tracking devices.
The directions that had come in the wake of the gang-rape of a paramedic student in a moving bus on December 16, 2012 in Delhi, have however, not been followed by a majority of the States.
While cities like Delhi and Kolkata have implemented the direction on a piecemeal basis, Mysore is the only city that has made some headway in implementing the ITS, but the implementation of the Ministry’s directions has largely been not carried out.
