Date:11/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/11/stories/2009011157330400.htm

New Delhi

Petition filed for basic facilities on Delhi Metro network

NEW DELHI: A petition seeking a direction to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and the Delhi Government to provide drinking water and toilet facilities for commuters in metro stations and trains has been filed in the Delhi High Court.

The petition, filed by an NGO, Voice of India, stated that in December 2007 the organisation had sent a representation to the Delhi Government and the DMRC seeking basic facilities in the trains but got no satisfactory reply from them.

According to NGO president Dhanesh Ieshdhan, there is also lack of toilet facilities on the trains, besides no drinking water facilities for commuters.

Seeking directions to the DMRC to provide these facilities within two months, the petitioner alleged that the Corporation had failed to make special sitting arrangements for senior citizens who commute every day by the metro trains. Besides, the NGO has raised questions over the security at metro stations, stating that “there is absence of baggage screening or scanning machines, the metal detecting wooden-frames through which a traveller passes before reaching a platform are also defective”.

The petitioner also urged the Court to constitute a committee. - PTI