Delhi unsafe for women, step in: Sheila writes to PM

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has written to the Prime Minister asking him to intervene in the functioning of Delhi Police. Dikshit, in her letter, cited the gangrape case to draw home the point that police has failed to ensure women's safety in the capital.

According to sources, in the letter Dikshit complained about the lax security, apathetic attitude in policing and towards issues like security of women. The letter also states that no visible improvement in policing has been witnessed in the city in the past two months, despite assurances of enhanced security for women following the gangrape incident. Dikshit requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take the appropriate necessary steps.

Sources said in the letter, dated February 13, Dikshit also wrote about functioning of the security commission, which frames guidelines on maintaining law and order and suggested that its recommendations should be considered seriously. A source said Dikshit has written a similar letter to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, asking him to take effective steps to improve policing in the city so that women feel secure.

At the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express last week, Dikshit had reiterated that police should be under state government's control. During the interaction, she said except VVIP security, normal law and order policing should come under state government.

"I don't think any state government can have the wherewithal to take on the security needs of the VVIPs and diplomats who live in Delhi. But where normal policing in Delhi is concerned, it should be with the state government. At the time of the gangrape, I raised certain issues like how a policeman can reach a person's house in five minutes when a window is broken but took so long to reach this victim? Everybody is scared of going to the police station. Everybody is scared of picking up persons hurt on the roadside and taking them to the hospital because they are detained for six to eight hours," Dikshit said at the Idea Exchange.

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