The Hindu : Better street lighting to check crimes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003

Other States

Other States - New Delhi

Better street lighting to check crimes

By Prashant Pandey

NEW DELHI MARCH 10. To arrest growing incidence of crime under cover of darkness, the North-West Delhi police have got in touch with civic agencies to improve street lighting in the lanes as well as on the main roads so that a proper vigil can be maintained at night. Instructions have also been issued to procure more night vision equipment.

According to the Joint Commissioner of Police (Northern Range), Ranjit Narayan, the matter has been taken up at a senior level and it is hoped that better lighting of the streets and the main roads would be possible soon.

Mr. Narayan said the situation becomes very difficult for the police during dark nights as the visibility reduces to about five metres. This is due to lack of enough streetlights. Such a situation provides criminals an excellent getaway. A perusal of the previous incidents of murder and robbery this year would reveal that quite a number of them occurred during night.

According to the police, dark nights leave them virtually crippled as a result of which even regular patrolling by area SHOs and Additional SHOs becomes difficult. Putting up pickets have also come a cropper. On March 8, the car of a financier, Nar Singh Chauhan, of Hiranki village at Alipur was reportedly stopped by a group of miscreants barely 400 metres away from the police picket on the road towards Sant Nagar (Burari) around 8-30 p.m. It was providence that the incident did not take a turn for the worse. The incident is indicative of various factors contributing to enhancing the morale of the criminals.

According to some area residents, some of the worse affected areas due to neglect on part of entire administration are a group of about 25-odd villages falling under the jurisdiction of Alipur, Samaipur Badli police stations, along with a few coming under Narela police station. All three come in the sub-division of Narela.

Adding to the woes of residents are potholed roads. "It is expected that on potholed roads anybody would slow down. Coupled with darkness, the criminals can get away with any daring act and just walk away,'' said Satish, an acquaintance of Nar Singh. He added that while some roads have witnessed repair job within six months, other stretches have completely been forgotten.

Apart from asking agencies concerned to light up the streets, the district police have also sent requests to the Provision and Logistics Department of the Delhi police for procuring more "light pistols''. These are guns used to fire in the air to light up a dark night.

Residents also claimed that there was no coordination among the agencies and despite repeated complaints everything boiled down to passing the buck. The elected representatives of the area, the civic agencies and the police have been apathetic towards the woes of citizens who are feeling unsafe in the district, they alleged.

While the police maintained the crime situation is not out of control, the only solace for them seems to be the fact that they were zeroing-in on the possible culprits. The Joint CP said a gang based in Uttar Pradesh and another in Haryana is under the scanner. Until the culprits are nabbed, the residents of North- West Delhi might continue to live in fear.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

Stories in this Section

BJP moves to shrug off Budget hangover

Better street lighting to check crimes

Sportspersons plot, execute murder

Terror of Capital ends reign in Punjab

NDMC fails to meet computerisation deadline

VAT will wait

U.K. Minister keen to encourage creative talent

BJP protests CM's remark