No PCR vans present during night hours

Even after two days of a 51-year-old Danish woman was gang raped by eight vagabonds in the heart of the capital near New Delhi railway station, the area – Railway Officers Club -- still remains a hub of other street drug and alcohol addicts.  Not only places in Lutyens Delhi, there are around 700 vulnerable spots with poor lighting and 74 dark spots across the city. These places are frequented by drug addicts.

When I ventured out onto these areas, the tall claims of law enforcers of intensified patrolling fell flat. No Police Control Room vans visible at least through five hours of drive, unmanned barricade, locked police post, deserted streets with no street light are enough to give criminal a free hand.

Even at the spot of Danish woman gang raped there were liquor bottles were lying nearby. Though three Railway Protection Special Force personnel (RPSC) deputed for the Railway Officers Club, areas adjoining the club is still a hub of alcoholics and drug addicts. When asked about it, a RPSC personnel Tej Singh said, “We have been deputed a day ago for club security and found that local ruffians come in the areas beside the club and consume drugs and alcohols.” The personnel stated that they are huge in numbers and present through the day and they can’t intervene as they have been asked to guard the club.

If this is the condition of areas near Connaught Place, the areas in west, east and south and even worse.  Even in the high profile VIP Zone – South Avenue where parliamentarians stay, there were unmanned police barricades, leave aside the presence of PCR or a cop in the close vicinity. This is the area not far away from five-star Leela hotel in Chanakyapuri where all police action was seen during the night.

The most shocking was the police booth outside Ram Manohar Lohia hospital was locked and no one was present in the vicinity. “This police booth is for namesake. No police officials stay during night,” said tea vendor out the hospital. 

There is no street light at the lane behind police headquarter. The areas near Mata Sundri Road and Bal Bhawan has similar look where streetlights here and there.

Around half of the 330 bus stops in the list of vulnerable spots visited on Friday night were found deserted and people struggling to find means of transportation.  The Munirka bus stop from where December 16 brutal gang rape victim was picked up was abandoned with no PCR vans or local police patrolling around five kilometers range from there. 

The entire stretch of Vansant Kunj, Vasant Vihar, Mahipalpur, Mehrauli and Dhaula Kuan where several gang rape incidents took place in last three years, there was not a single man in khaki found manning on these venerable roads. On Saturday around 1, the entire stretch from Bersarai -- between Jawaharlal Nehru University and IIT Delhi -- to Vasant Kunj, commuters were standing on bus stop and not a single police official were present over there.

Naresh Gujjar a resident of Vasant Kunj said, “When people make call to police control room then only they come. Patrolling in these areas is a joke. They are busy after 10 pm collecting money from truck.” 

The top priority of commissioner of police B S Bassi to minimize heinous and street crime seems nearly impossible with this scenario. He had stated that the PCR vans and local police have been deployed in all such vulnerable spots to prevent incidents of crimes against women and other crimes like snatching and robbery.

But the reality check exposes that the promises made by the commissioner are just on paper and not on implementation front. 

ENDS