Two years after the brutal gangrape-cum-murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in Delhi shook the conscience of the traumatised nation and highlighted the issue of women’s safety like never before, pretty little has changed to ensure the fair sex’s safety and security on the Capital streets.
Dark by-lanes, thick forest cover, defunct streetlights and absence of Police Control Room (PCR) vans have made the city more vulnerable, particularly for women.
While cops were deployed at the Munirka bus stop around-the-clock, the entire stretch to Mahipalpur flyover is as good as abandoned land as no policemen or PCR vans were sighted in the area.
The bus stands next to Vasant Vihar are not even visible, if not for the light emitted from the moving traffic.
The Pioneer tracked the route on which the December 16 victim and her friend were assaulted and raped at night, only to see the camouflage created by the Delhi Police.
At the Munirka bus stand, a well-equipped policeman is seen guarding the spot. There are lights all over, and the place is bustling with activity till as late as 10 pm. The policeman on duty monitor the activities of every bus at the stand. Any bus, other than the DTC one, is not allowed to stop at the bus stand, and those stopping are inspected by the officials on patrol duty. A few hundred metres ahead also, the situation looks all hunky dory. One is impressed by the way the area is lit up, and the view of policemen on the road with PCRs at every 100 metres is rather comforting.
However, a few metres past the Vasant Vihar bus stand, and a different reality emerges. The hustle bustle is reduced to the sound of traffic with the headlights of vehicles as the main source of light on the road. The alleys alongside the main road also appear deserted. While for the first kilometer the street lights are lit, but no PCR, CCTV camera, policemen or activity are noticed as you move ahead. Driving alone on that road could be a nightmare, leave alone walking.
Around 500 metres ahead of the Malai Mandir bus stand straight onto the road to Mahipalpur, an eerie silence greets the isolated stretch. The street lights are dysfunctional. The forest cover and the dark alley are menacing. The desolate area hosts three big bus stands, tucked in between shadowy trees, which stand in darkness. It will be impossible to spot those bus stands.
These bus stands work as the biggest dark spots on the route albeit the abandoned jungle behind it. A walk-over bridge is located right next to the Arjun Path bus stand. There is a chat wallah who’s stalled right at the stand where over a dozen of people are seen around 8.30 pm. But there is no light in the area. Occasionally with the passing of vehicles one can spot the bus stand, but there is no surveillance on the route.
Under the Mahipalpur flyover, lights have definitely been put, but the area is again under no sort of surveillance. Throughout the stretch of nearly 16 km to and fro this route, not one PCR van is seen. There is no open police station where one can go if anything goes wrong, no public phones, no habitation to seek refuge. The area where one of the most horrifying incidents took place two years back lies unattended and untouched till date. Two years on and this route is still threatened by its lack of security and its blinded locale.