How to make Delhi safer for women: committee set up, report in three months

New Delhi: Amid national outrage over the gang-rape of a young student on a moving bus in Delhi, the government announced today that a new commission of inquiry is being set up to look at the lapses that enabled the horrific assault and what needs to be done to urgently improve the safety of women in the capital.

The one-member commission will have a retired Delhi High Court judge named Usha Mehra reconstruct the entire sequence of events on the night of Sunday, December 16, when the young student and  her male friend boarded a private bus and were brutally assaulted by six men, before being thrown out of the bus on a flyover. It will identify lapses, including those on the part of the police. The commission will submit its report within three months.

"The steps are being taken with the serious intent to find a lasting solution to the problem (of rape) that plagues all metros and other towns of India," said senior minister P Chidambaram today. "That it is happening in Delhi is a matter of shame," he added.

A separate committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge JS Verma, is already studying what changes should be made to criminal laws to provide more severe punishment for those convicted of sexual assault.  The opposition BJP and thousands of others who participated in massive protests over the last week want the death penalty to apply to rapists.

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The government has said that after Justice Verma's commission submits is recommendations, the issue will be discussed in Parliament.

The student, who was attacked on the bus by six men, is in hospital in critical condition. The men have been arrested and the Delhi High Court has sanctioned a fast-track trial with daily hearings for them.  

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The police is forcing owners of buses or cars with tinted windows to remove the screens.  The government has said more buses will be added for Delhi's late-night commuters, and that all buses will be fitted with GPS systems so that their movement can be monitored.  Drivers of public buses and autos will be verified by the police and their photo IDs will have to be displayed on their vehicles.