Following the incident of eve-teasing in a running bus, police have started taking proactive measures by nabbing the eve-teasers and giving strict orders to private bus operators to ensure safety of women passengers.
The confidence of women passengers on the most affordable transport on
city roads seems to have returned with bus frequency returning to normalcy.
Bus operators observed strike in the city to protest against police ‘callousness’ against one of the operators in whose bus the eve-teasing incident forced schoolgirls to jump off on Saturday.
East Singhbhum SSP Anoop T Mathew has ordered a ban on playing of music systems inside buses, mandatory name plates on ticket collectors’ and drivers’ dress, a dress code for drivers and ticket collectors, writing down of concerned police station contact numbers and submission of name and contact numbers of drivers and ticket collectors at local police stations.
“We have been directed to ask their staff to immediately inform bus owners about any incident of eve-teasing or even if they feel that a certain section of youths have boarded the bus to create trouble or play pranks on women,” said Sanjay Pandey, general
secretary of the Shikshit Berozgar Mini Bus Association, the umbrella outfit of private bus operators.
“Security of women traveling in buses is our top priority. We would not tolerate cheating of any kind. In order to ensure security of women in public transport, we have decided to carry surprise inspection,” said an official.
The private fleet of 120 busses that run on 14 routes across the city, witnesses a daily footfall of more than 1.5 lakh commuters.
After three girls’ students of ADlS High School in Sakchi jumped out of a mini-bus near Hathi-Ghora Temple at Sakchi near the Mango bridge on being teased by a group of three younsters last afternoon, the police have tightened noose of erring bus drivers and conductors.