Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh (Press Trust of India file photo)
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who has advised state governments to bar web-based taxi services, announced some new measures for the Capital for women's safety.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, the ministry said the measures include an increase in the number of police patrol vans and making installation of GPS mandatory in all public utility vehicles.
The measures come after a national outrage over the rape of a woman on Friday, allegedly by the driver of an Uber cab she had hired. (Read:
Uber stops booking in Delhi)
The woman was raped apparently 3 km from her house in Inderlok, near the Zakira bridge and the busy Inderlok metro station.
There are three police stations near the Zakira bridge. Sources say five police vans patrolled the area on Friday night. None had checked the deserted stretch.
Today, a tweet from the home ministry said, "The number of PCR vans has been increased to 1,000 in Delhi". "The government has installed 377 CCTV cameras in Delhi, another 1500 soon," said another tweet. "Installation of GPS is has been made mandatory in all public utility vehicles," said a third.
The car which Uber driver Shiv Kumar Yadav was driving on Friday night did not have GPS installed. Uber gave its drivers a phone which had GPS, by which the company could track the vehicles. But Yadav had switched off the phone, thereby making the cab untraceable. (Read:
No drastic feedback about driver, says Uber)
The installation of GPS and CCTV in buses had been suggested after the fatal gang-rape of a young para-medical student on December 16, 2012 in a moving bus in Delhi. That case too, had evoked a nationwide outrage.
One of the ministry tweets said, "Conviction rate in rape cases is at 36 percent in Delhi, which is much higher than the national average of 27 percent."