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Dikshit flays police crackdown on protestors
Commuters suffer as protestors lay siege to India Gate
Women’s safety: Delhi has a long way to go
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Autos, buses plying sans mandatory GPS
Delhi Metro completes 10 yrs
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Dikshit flays police crackdown on protestors
New Delhi, December 23 In the wake of the protest that turned aggressive towards the evening, Dikshit called an emergency meeting of the Delhi Cabinet which expressed serious concerns over the prevailing situation. The cabinet discussed the situation following violent protests at India Gate against the gangrape of a young girl last Sunday. She said that the cabinet felt that concrete measures must be taken to instil confidence among woman in the city. After the meeting, Dikshit met Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde for a review of the law and order situation in the city. "The Commissioner of Police, the Lieutenant-Governor and the Ministry of Home Affairs must put a mechanism in place to prevent occurrence of such incidents in future. A better law and order situation in the city should be ensured so that people feel safe and secure no matter what time they are staying out," said Dikshit. Dikshit said that they urged the minister to improve patrolling on the roads, especially late at night. "Since the confidence in the law and order machinery is shaken, steps must be taken for its restoration. Various measures like increased patrolling, improved visibility of policing and rationalization of police deployment for VIP security need to be taken," she said. Recognizing the need to sensitize the police and make it more responsive and accountable, she said that strict action against the officials responsible for it should be taken, even if they are senior officers. Dikshit said that they suggested to the minister to deploy security personnel in public transport, setting up an effective authority to look into all the complaints against police officials.
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Commuters suffer as protestors lay siege to India Gate
New Delhi, December 23 Unaware of the protestors who turned out in huge numbers at India Gate this afternoon, the commuters were stranded for hours. "There was no advisory. We are stuck. If they take a decision late at night and do not publicise it, then this is bound to happen. This is sheer harassment of the people," said Nitasha, who was heading towards Connaught Place. The protests led to traffic snarls after a huge crowd thronged Vijay Chowk. As a result, Rafi Marg, Mansingh Road and the adjacent stretches remained congested throughout the day. As Vijay Chowk was the epicentre of the protests, the road from Rajpath to Rashtrapati Bhavan was closed. However, cross traffic movement was allowed, said a traffic cop. The police put up barricades on Rajpath and closed down eight Metro stations around India Gate and Raisina Hills. The police did not allow vehicular movement on the stretch leading to Raisina Hills and diverted the traffic towards Ring Road. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) closed eight stations--Patel Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Race Course Road, Barakhamba Road, Mandi House, Khan Market and Pragati Maidan. Though the number of commuters was less in the morning it being Sunday, those who chose to take the Metro to reach these destinations were put to a lot of hardship as they were unaware of the announcement made by DMRC late at night. Several people, who were headed to Connaught Place from south Delhi, had to take longer routes as the police did not allow traffic on Rajpath. "The situation was not so bad as it was a Sunday. By and large, the traffic kept moving and there was no logjam. By the late evening, traffic movement at India Gate was normalized," said JCP (traffic) Satyendra Garg.
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Women’s safety: Delhi has a long way to go
New Delhi, December 23 It's the people from the nation's Capital who have been turning up in thousands at Raisina Hills, India Gate and Jantar Mantar over the last one week, demanding justice for a gangrape victim and yet, unfortunately it was the people of the same city who never helped her for over two hours after she was dumped naked and injured by the rapists in Delhi on the fateful night of December 16. Status messages and Tweets on the social networking media about Damini's critical condition and respect for her battle with death at Safdarjung Hospital made the headlines for days together now.
Anger towards the accused, the politicians and the police oozed out on streets, however not once anyone questioned about the need for an increased responsibility on the part of the citizens. And hence, it is widely known that even though a special commission has been set up to look into this case being termed the "rarest of the rare," the Delhi woman is still not safe. "It is the same city which never bothered to take 21-year-old Radhika Tanwar to hospital after she was shot at pointblank range at the Dhaula Kuan footover bridge by a jilted lover last year. No one on a busy road in broad daylight remembered any girl being shot. The police reached out for eyewitnesses, but failed to get anyone on record. The police constable who took the girl to hospital asked for help from onlookers, but no one came forward. Many autorickshaws denied taking girl to hospital," said Umang Sabarwal, one of the organizers of the Besharmi Morcha last year. The Radhika Tanwar case led to similar momentum amongst the student community. Protests were held and candlelight vigils followed. But no lessons were learnt, neither by the administration nor the citizens. The city reported a higher number of crimes against women the next year. As per the latest figures by the National Crime Records, this year close to 600 rape cases have been reported in the Capital. "This rage overriding the Capital has made the government sit up and take notice. But the citizens, the students and the young boys still do not understand that rape is a social issue. There is definite anger in the people against the Delhi police. To sensitize the coming generations on gender, they need to be taught the basics from the beginning. A separate course on the issue in the curriculum wouldn't be a bad idea," said a psychology faculty member at Lady Shri Ram College. "There are people genuinely hurt and immensely perturbed over the state of women safety in the city. This is indeed the core strength of the entire campaign running over the last one week, but for the city to gain a lesson from the entire episode, it is important that people learn that indifference will no longer work. Such crimes can strike anybody and that thought needs to get across. The police and the administration can't force respect for women. This has to come from within, and for that Delhi has a long way to go," added Sameeksha, member, All India Democratic Women Association.
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Dense fog engulfs city
New Delhi, December 23 The minimum temperature was recorded at 5.9° C, two degrees below normal and down from yesterday's 6.2° C. The visibility today reduced to 100 m. At the airport, around 20 flights were delayed while two cancelled as the fog enveloped the airport suddenly around 7 am, said airport officials, adding that the operations were suspended for over an hour. "Flight operations at Indira Gandhi International Airport remained suspended for over an hour after the city witnessed the first dense fog of this season today," said the official. "Rest operations were normal despite a shallow fog in the morning and the runway visibility was above 200 m but suddenly around 7 am dense fog descended at the airport and runway visibility dropped to zero at one end of the runway 29/11 (the third runway), while it was below 50 m on the other end," said the official. The general visibility on the main runway was 50 m while the runway visibility was 75 m. The visibility being far less than the required minimum limit of 125 m (for smaller aircraft) and 150 m (for bigger aircraft), no flights were taking off, an airline official said, forcing the airlines to hold back the departure of flights.
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Autos, buses plying sans mandatory GPS
New Delhi, December 23 The issue has been raised once again by the protestors in view of the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old girl. The city government had announced a slew of steps to regulate the transport system like mandatory installation of GPS on autorickshaws, taxis and DTC buses as also tougher norms for plying school buses and erecting electronic information boards on all the bus stops. But none of the measures has been implemented so far. As per the directive, all the schools were required to finalise a route plan of their buses and a list of children travelling by buses had to be submitted to the traffic police by August 15. While hiking the taxi and autorickshaw fares by 35 per cent in 2010, the government had made it mandatory for auto drivers to install GPS in their vehicles. "The government had added a component in the hiked fare to help the autorickshaw owners install the device. Yet, around 55,000 autorickshaws are plying without GPS," said a senior Delhi government official. Since December 2010, the government had terminated the permits of nearly 3,000 Blueline buses following a series of fatal incidents involving them. But some operators are plying these buses across the city after painting them white. "The transport system in the city is run by the Delhi government. The incident had happened on a moving bus. We have to regulate our transport system. How can the Chief Minister shirk her responsibility," said president of the BJP unit of Delhi, Vijender Gupta.
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Delhi Metro completes 10 yrs
New Delhi, December 23 The eight-coach trains which would carry 600 additional commuters than the 2,200 capacity of a six-coach train will be inducted into service by Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit tomorrow at Central Park. The first eight coach train will be introduced on the Jahangirpuri-HUDA City Centre corridor and this will be the first of a total of 68 eight coach trains which will be introduced on the Gurgaon and Noida lines. As a special 10th anniversary gift for senior citizens and the differently abled persons, Delhi Metro will allot more seats for them from tomorrow onwards. Apart from existing reservation of four seats for old and physically challenged in each car of a Metro train; additional four seats will be earmarked for senior citizens and differently abled persons in the DT car (coaches with train operators cabin attached) and additional eight seats in the M car (the middle coaches). Commenting on 10 years of the journey, Delhi Metro chief Mangu Singh said Delhi Metro was a dream which was very difficult to realise. It was a dream which was awaited not only by the commuters of Delhi but by the whole nation. "It's now a reality, a reality which everyone is looking up to. This has all been possible because of the engineers, technicians and other officials who made this dream come into a reality," he said. Delhi Metro will also mark the completion of ten years of its operations with many other activities, which will continue for a week. A commemorative souvenir book titled "Delhi Metro: A Decade of Dedication, 10 Years of Metro Operations" will also be unveiled on the occasion and a special commemorative smart card will also be launched tomorrow. — PTI
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New Delhi, December 23
The traffic around India Gate today came to a standstill as the Delhi police diverted vehicular movement and restricted the entry to major roads.
New Delhi, December 23
