Within a year, all DTC buses will have CCTV cameras and four panic buttons that passengers can press in an emergency. This statement by the AAP led Delhi Government on the eve of International Women’s Day, is nothing but a hollow reiteration of the promise they had made in June last year. Till now only 200 buses have CCTV cameras.
In the words of Delhi transport minister, Kailash Gahlot, “There will be four panic buttons on each bus. The moment it is pressed, the control room will get an alert and a team will be activated to thwart the danger.”
To heighten security for women passengers, the Kejriwal government had also promised to deploy one marshal in every state run bus. For sometime after the announcement, marshals were seen on some buses. However, today there are hardly any buses in the NCR that have a marshal on board. According to sources, the transport department could not afford the salaries of these private marshals beyond six months of their initial deployment.
Only last month, a student of Delhi University was sexually assaulted on a DTC bus. This and many similar incidents have highlighted the failure of the government in terms of securing the safety of women passengers. None of the buses where these unfortunate incidents occurred had either CCTVs or marshals.
Dipti Singh, a DU student who lives in East Delhi’s Pandav Nagar said, “DTC buses are unsafe for women. It is good to hear that the government is planning to install CCTVs and panic buttons. But these are not new promises and I will not believe them until they actually do it.”
Shipra Gupta, a final year law student who goes to Patiala House Court has similar views about DTC buses. She said, “I take a bus from Laxmi Nagar to my place of work as there is no direct metro connectivity. I have many bad memories of DTC buses which I cannot share.”
