The Delhi High Court has directed the city government to ensure the completion of a project for the installation of panic buttons and tracking devices in all Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses.
The high court’s direction came on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) raising concern over incidents like snatching, theft and eve-teasing on DTC buses.
The high court was informed by the Delhi government that all new buses being inducted under the cluster scheme and in the DTC fleet are equipped with CCTV, panic buttons and vehicle tracking system, as per the statutory requirement.
It was also told that as per the agreement executed between the government and the contractor, the project is being implemented in the existing 5541 buses, which include 3762 DTC and 1679 cluster buses. Panic buttons and Automatic Vehicle Location Tracking System (AVLTS) are being installed.
However, at present, all buses have not been equipped with such systems as the project got delayed on account of the Covid outbreak, it said.
Taking into account the detailed affidavit filed by the Delhi government’s Transport Department in a PIL seeking directions for installation of CCTV cameras and deployment of one police personnel on all DTC and cluster buses in the city, the high court said no further orders are required to be passed in the matter.
"However, the Delhi government is directed to ensure the completion of the project for installation of panic buttons and AVLTS in all the buses within the time frame as per the terms and conditions of the agreement executed between the government and the contractor,” a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said in a recent order.
The high court was also informed that civil defence volunteers were deployed by the Directorate of Civil Defence of the Delhi government’s Revenue Department initially for a period of three months and their services are being extended from time to time.
The government said as of date 12,238 bus marshals are deployed on the DTC and cluster buses for the safety of women commuters and that there is no discrimination in the selection of female conductors and marshals for these buses.
“…the appointment of conductors and marshals are being made by issuing proper advertisements as per the applicable recruitment rules irrespective of the gender of the candidate. It is stated that at present there are sufficient number of female conductors and marshals who are being deployed in the DTC/ cluster buses,” the government said.
It said in the affidavit that DTC has added 253 new electric buses in its fleet and they have an integrated command and control centre which tracks all GPS feeds and gets live video in case a panic button is pressed.
Panic alerts have been integrated through an API with 112 platforms of the Delhi Police, it said. The plea alleged that passengers, especially women, were not safe on the buses which have become a "hub" of eve-teasing, snatching and theft.
The petition, by Anti Corruption Council of India, claimed the Delhi government and the transport department have done "nothing" to ensure the security of women commuters on the buses.
It had sought directions to the Delhi government to deploy one police officer as well as install CCTV cameras on each public transport bus in the city to ensure the safety of commuters.
The petition had also sought the installation of tracking devices on the buses to detect their locations in real-time and urged the court to direct the government to run more buses exclusively for women.
