Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Mar 20, 2012: 'Women safe in Gurgaon, issue blown out of proportion'

, TNN | Mar 20, 2012, 06.26AM IST 
Gurgaon police plans to introduce many new initiatives to keep a close watch on the Mall Mile. DCP (east) Maheshwar Dayal, in whose jurisdiction MG Road falls, tells Aditya Dev that their focus would be on weeding out troublemakers from the area.

Gurgaon is being termed as an unsafe city for the fairer sex. What is your take?Gurgaon is still a safe place for women. The recent gang rape was almost a blind one, but the police solved it in the shortest time and arrested the culprits. Let's not blow the incident out of proportion. Women can freely move in the city.

What steps have been taken by the police to prevent such incidents? One has to understand that the police are also working under many constraints. There is a shortage of staff, which is why there are many who are putting in many more hours than they are required to. We are planning a series of initiatives to plug the loopholes. It includes installation of CCTVs on the whole stretch with the help of mall owners, increasing the number of patrolling vehicles (from two to four) and deployment of women cops on night duty among others. An ACP will also be on night duty to supervise.

How do you plan to tackle the issue of women escorts outside pubs? Police cannot ask them to leave. On what charges can you remove them? Police cannot act as a moral brigade. We can only act in cases when there is a complaint. Vigilance and security are the only things in our purview. You cannot wish away crimes from occurring.

What do you seek to achieve by deploying women cops at night? It is a very important initiative. Altogether 27 women cops have been deployed on MG Road and at five Metro stations. Of them, 12 will be on the road (six in a PCR van and the rest at a police post outside Sahara Mall), while the rest 15 will be equally distributed on each of the five Metro stations (three each) between 8pm and 11pm. Women feel less hesitant in approaching them. They have been directed to sensitively handle cases.

How will you ensure that such incidents are not repeated? We will focus on barring entry of notorious elements to pubs. We will also appeal to the public to be vigilant when they venture out late in the night.
Link: 'Women safe in Gurgaon, issue blown out of proportion'

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