Task force set up to review women’s safety in Delhi

Amid criticism of the government and the police following the gangrape of the 23-year-old who died on Saturday, the Centre on Tuesday announced a 13-member special task force headed by Union Home Secretary R K Singh to look at "safety issues" of women in the city and "review the functioning" of the Delhi Police on a regular basis.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the task force will "review the action taken by the police and the Delhi government regarding safety issues of women".

Earlier, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had announced the decision to set up a special task force in his statement in Parliament. The task force will also take into consideration the suggestions made by MPs during the discussion on the issue.

It has also been decided that the Union Home Secretary will review the gangrape-and-murder case every fortnight with Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar and special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan.

Besides the Delhi Police Commissioner, the task force includes two other senior Delhi Police officials — Special CP (Traffic) Sudhir Yadav and Special CP (Law & Order) Dharmendra Kumar.

There are five officials from the Delhi government — Chief Secretary D M Spolia, Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Barkha Singh, NDMC chairperson Archna Arora, Transport Commissioner Rajendra Kumar and Excise Commissioner A K Singh, and three from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) — East Delhi Municipal Corporation Commissioner S S Yadav, North Delhi Municipal Corporation Commissioner P K Gupta and South Delhi Municipal Corporation Commissioner Manish Gupta.

Besides the Union Home Secretary, the only other official from the Centre in the task force is Joint Secretary (UT) K K Pathak.

Following the gangrape, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had demanded that the Delhi Police should be brought under her.

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