Delhi Government and Central Government should work together to ensure women’s safety – CM Arvind Kejriwal

• Rising incidents of crimes of rape and murder against women was discussed in the Delhi Assembly on Monday
• Delhi government tried to provide safe environment by doing all the work under its jurisdiction: CM Kejriwal

New Delhi: Addressing the Delhi Assembly on the first day of the last session before the Delhi assembly elections in 2020, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed deep concern on the issue of women’s safety in the country as well as in the national capital. Terming the situation of law and order situation in Delhi ‘grave’, he said that the issue of women safety in the country should not be politicized and the state and the central governments should work together towards resolving such issues.

Addressing the issue, CM Arvind Kejriwal said, “I am very despaired to see the news of unfortunate incidents of rape and murder against women every morning. Recently, a 27-year old doctor was raped and murdered in Hyderabad, a 6-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Rajasthan, a 40-year-old woman was raped and murdered in Kerala, a child was raped in Verangal. We hear about such incidents from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Coimbatore and Ranchi. What has happened to our country? Women are unsafe in each city, and in each state of our nation. Whereas families are concerned about the safety of their women members, all these unfortunate incidents are sparking grave anger and outrage in the people. I believe that there should be no politics on the issue of women’s safety in the country, and people should fulfill their responsibilities in whatever capacity they can.”

We have taken steps to ensure women safety in Delhi: CM Arvind Kejriwal

“In Delhi, public’s initial demand was installation of CCTV cameras to ensure the safety and security of women in the country, and the Delhi government had decided to install around 3 lakh cameras across the city. Out of the 2,80,000 cameras, installation of 1,40,000 cameras is in progress, and around 1,05,000 cameras have already been installed across the city. I believe no other city in the world has ever installed CCTV cameras at such a large scale. We have announced the installation of 2.1 lakh street lights in the capital, to eradicate dark spots across the city. Gates have been erected outside the colonies to ensure the security of colonies at night. 13000 bus marshals have been deployed in the buses plying on the roads of Delhi, and we have seen many cases of bravery of bus marshals. I am of a firm belief that the incidents of crime will reduce drastically due to the presence of these marshals. I do not say that we have done everything, we have to do a lot more than what we have done now. The last-mile connectivity, as suggested by our opposition MLA, is also work in progress and we will soon come up witha resolution on this,” said CM Arvind Kejriwal

Law and order and Police must be strengthened in Delhi: CM Arvind Kejriwal

CM Arvind Kejriwal said that the law and order and the police in Delhi are under the jurisdiction of the Centre and both of them should be strengthened to streamline teh security arrangements in the city. “Today, if a person goes to report a crime, the police does not help either out of their corrupt intentions or out of ignorance. I believe that rather than ignoring that corruption is still prevalent, we must acknowledge this fact and act on it collectively,” he added.

Convicts should be punished within six months of the crime: CM Arvind Kejriwal

“Nothing is so complicated that cannot be fixed, we all have to do our duty. Even the judiciary should fulfill its duty of resolving the cases of such henious crimes as quickly as they can. Judgements on such cases must be passes on a mission mode and the culprits must be convicted within six months of the initiation of the trial,” said the Chief Minister.

Introduce curriculum to sensitize men on women issues: CM Arvind Kejriwal

“Along with the system, the society that we live in needs to change as well. What is happening to our youth? The men should be taught to respect women by their family members in their homes, they should be made to realize the consequences of such an act. I want to appeal to the education minister to introduce such curriculum in our schools which envisages sensitizing men towards the issues faced by women. As far as the Nirbhaya case is concerned, a convict held in the case submitted a mercy petition on November 5, on which the Union Home Minister demanded our recommendation. We have held discussions and meetings on the same and have decided to reject the mercy petition of the convict. I believe that the strictest punishments must be given to the culprits and no leniency should be shown to them. Delhi is a crime capital, and I am sure no party, whether BJP or AAP, feels good about Delhi being called a crime capital. The centre and the state governments must sit together to devise a solution to this issue. We want to solve this issue and we want to protect the women of our capital and our country. We will take whatever steps we have to and spend as much funds as we can towards this issue. I want to appeal to the Union Home Minister to support us in our measures to ensure women safety.”

Speaking to the media earlier in the day, CM Kejriwal had said, “The heinous crimes of rape and murder against women happening in our country are very shameful for our nation. Years have passed since the Nirbhaya rape case saw an outrage from the people. I believe that the strictest punishments must be given to the culprits so that no one even thinks of repeating such a gruesome crime. The Delhi government has sent a recommendation to the Hon’ble President in this regard, no mercy shall be given to the culprits at any cost.”

CM Arvind Kejriwal announced street lights installation to ensure women’s safety in the national capital

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced the Delhi government’s Mukhyamantri Street Light Yojana in September this year, involving the installation of more than 2 lakh LED street lights at the city’s dark spots as well as unauthorized and slum areas to ensure safety and security of women citizens in the capital. He stated, “The issue of dark spots in the city has always been a huge concern. Installing electricity poles in the unauthorized colonies, Jhuggi Jhopri colonies and congested areas of Old Delhi has been a big challenge for us. After a lot of deliberation, we have designed a way-out based on our CCTV installation model.” The identification of sites of installation by the MLAs has already been completed and the installation work is in progress.