With the Supreme Court upholding the death penalty for four convicts in the December 16 gangrape case, the issue of women’s safety and the Aam Aadmi Party Government's promise of installing CCTV cameras at public places and in Delhi Transport Corporation buses, is back in focus. Though the AAP dispensation has started executing its ambitious project of illuminating the city's dark spots and has identified around 7,400 such spots across the city which are currently being illuminated and has also deployed homeguard jawans and civil defence volunteers in all DTC buses, these two key promises seem to be on the back-burner as things stand today. “The pilot project of CCTVs in 200 buses had been undertaken in 2014, but it is very unfortunate that since then, the number remained the same. However, in the 2017-18 Budget, the Government has allocated Rs 100 crore for installation of CCTV cameras in all DTC buses,” a senior official said requesting anonymity. Similarly, the work of installing CCTV cameras at 850 “important” locations across the city is yet to come into being.
In the 2016-17 Budget, the AAP Government had set aside around Rs 200 crore to execute the project, but it had not been able to utilise the funds till date. In the current financial year, the Government has allocated Rs 130 crore for the project.