VOX POPULI
The deferring of the announcement of the Gujarat Assembly elections by the EC is yet again another instance to prove that our independent institutions have got compromised with the disease that is called the Saffron virus with the RSS/BJP and Modi in its forefront. The CEC defending the decision to announce the Himachal Pradesh elections but not the Gujarat schedule claiming convention is also wrong. The time honoured convention has been that the schedule for elections of States which complete their term within 6 months of each other are announced together. It was only in 2017 because of the floods in Gujarat that the schedule for elections in the State was deferred so that flood relief measures could be undertaken and not attract the election code of conduct. This was at least clearly on humanitarian grounds. Thus the CEC can claim precedence but not convention in the deliberate malfeasance in this matter. Just like sighting one sparrow does not signify the onset of spring so also one instance does not constitute convention. The reason for the postponement of the announcement of the Gujarat elections is actually very simple. Narendra Modi is visiting Gujarat later this month (October) to visit the DefExpo and is expected to give election sops to the people of the State. If the election code of conduct were in force then these sops could not be announced. In this context the EC has been saying that it is strictly against freebies thus election sops surely being an 'indirect' freebie, it should not be an accomplice in facilitating the purchase of people's votes in Gujarat by the BJP. Another aspect in this matter is that Narendra Modi has been a strong proponent of One Nation One Vote meaning that the whole country would vote on one day. Instead of working towards it he is sabotaging his own preferred option by postponing announcement of Gujarat's elections and not having it along with Himachal's to a close or similar schedule.
Five stations account for one-fourth of metro crimes in Delhi
The swindlers keep tracing their prey throughout the metro station and target them as soon as they get a chance.
If you are a commuter of Delhi Metro, use caution while passing through interchange metro stations where snatchers, thieves and other miscreants are waiting for their prey. One needs to be extra cautious at especially five major interchange metro stations.
This was revealed by the Delhi Metro Police in a Right to Information (RTI) reply. They said the five interchange stations are Kashmere Gate, Rajiv Chowk, Yamuna Bank, Anand Vihar and Hauz Khas where one-fourth of the total crime committed at all the metro stations in Delhi take place.
It may be noted here that these metro stations witness a maximum number of footfalls every day.
Kashmere Gate
Among the five metro stations notorious for crimes, Kashmere Gate (KG) is favourite haunt for ruffians since most of the criminal activities have been reported from here.
According to the RTI reply, as many as 5,110 incidents of crimes were reported at KG metro station in the last five years, which is way higher than the crimes at other metro stations in Delhi.
With 2,936 criminal incidents reported in the last five years, Rajiv Chowk metro station stood second.
These overcrowded metro stations offer a big advantage to such antisocial elements, who roam around in search of their target and disappear in the crowd after committing the crime.
Interestingly, the crime ratio at these metro stations didn’t change and remained constant even last year.
As per the data, the number of crimes took place in the year 2021 at metro stations was 2,091. Of these, 500 incidents (about 25 percent) took place at these five interchange metro stations.
Five-year crime graph
| Year | Total Cases | Kashmere Gate | Rajiv Chowk | Yamuna Bank | Anand Vihar | Hauz Khas |
| 2017 | 12777 | 2702 | 1385 | 250 | 112 | 57 |
| 2018 | 5374 | 963 | 584 | 102 | 73 | 132 |
| 2019 | 6701 | 888 | 784 | 113 | 85 | 179 |
| 2020 | 2268 | 216 | 56 | 22 | 23 | 21 |
| 2021 | 2091 | 141 | 127 | 91 | 70 | 18 |
Unaffected by pandemic
Even during Covid-19 outbreak, when the metro was either closed for most of the time or a small number of passegers were allowed to travel, crimes at metro stations continued unabated.
Despite being in the grip of the first wave of the Covid pandemic in the year 2020, the Delhi Metro witnessed 2,266 cases of snatching and theft. What’s all the more shocking was that, a case of rape was also reported that year whereas during the deadliest second and the third wave of pandemic in the year 2021, 2,090 crime cases were reported in Delhi Metro.
Crimes at Indralok
During the last five years, Indralok metro station recorded a surge in crime taking the sixth spot in the list. As many as 187 incidents of crime reported under the jurisdiction of this metro station, which is an interchange junction for Red and Green Line.
Unsafe transition
According to a police official, commuters are mostly targeted while changing the train. The swindlers keep tracing their prey throughout the metro station and target them as soon as they get a chance.
Inter-zone stations are the ones with heavy footfalls every day. Usually, people change platforms from one metro line to another. Due to overcrowding at these stations, the criminals get enough time to carry out theft or snatching. To avoid being caught, they join the crowd after commiting a crime.
Many a time, they ambush near their victim at the doors of metros, and snatches mobile or other expensive items just before doors are closed.
Security system
Apart from the Delhi Metro Police, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is deployed at the Delhi Metro stations. The CISF is responsible for the security of metro premises. It is the CISF which ensures security by passenger screening, station checking, search in metro trains and at platforms.
The Delhi Metro Police is responsible for all the legal action taken for a crime taking place inside the metro premises. To monitor legal action, there are 16 police stations at 16 different metro stations. Along with police teams of metro police stations, a team of special staff is deployed in Delhi Metros.
Tips for safe commute
– Be careful while getting down or boarding the metro train and be attentive to your belongings.
– Stay in the lines while boarding the train and avoid being part of the crowd while entering a metro train.
– Keep your baggage in the front while travelling and don’t lose hold of your belongings, even while sitting in the metro.
– Put your luggage in the X-Bis machine during security checks only when it’s your turn. Avoid putting things on the machine belt while you are standing in the queue.
– If not necessary, avoid keeping mobile in your hand while boarding or de-boarding the train. It can be snatched before you get any clue.
The antics of our Goan ministers are very much fit for reproducing in Punch, the celebrated UK humour magazine. One does not know if they will accept it or consider it an insult. The latest is the statement by our Transport Minister to hold bar owners responsible for drunken driving on Goan roads with the ostensible objective to limit road accidents. lnstead of catching the drunks driving on the roads with the breathalyser kits and intensify police patrolling in this regard the Minister is asking bar owners not to pursue their legitimate business for which they take a licence and which is their livelihood. One has not heard of such stupidity any time earlier. The Minister further goes to make a statement that abroad bar owners call for taxis to take drunk customers home to prevent them from driving. This is a completely unverifiable claim since in smaller pubs and bars maybe in the countryside abroad, they do this as a matter of courtesy since most regular drinkers are known to the bar owners. But in larger cities such gestures are practically impossible. So also in India where the bars are more crowded than the ones abroad and the bar owners will seriously have to go out of their way to arrange for transport for their errant guests who in most cases will be unknown to them. Take the case here in Goa, during season 90% of the people in the bars will be tourists and these are the people who get drunk. The way to tackle drunken driving is to improve policing and be strict with offenders and throw them into jail for one night from which they will get the message the next morning to be more careful in future. Why are our Ministers lax with our enforcement officials like the police and other agencies and encourage the sussegadlife? Have them out on the roads at night to intensify the monitoring of drunken driving?
Narendra Modi Back In Election Mode : 11 Oct 2022
Narendra Modi is back in election mode as one can understand from the speech he gave at Bharuch y/day, 10th Oct, where he said that 'urban Naxals' are attempting to enter Gujarat by 'changing their appearance' and that they will be detected by the State and destroyed. These precisely are the provocative and incendiary statements which encourage people lower down the ranks be it within political parties or other bodies to take law into their hands and commit atrocities. It does not also behove Modi occupying the chair of the Prime Minister of India to make such statements. Such statements from the political leadership result as we saw lately at Bijapur in Karnataka where a mob forcibly entered a centuries old mosque and performed a puja within the premises. There are other similar communal incidents where the party cadres or the mob assume implicit licence from their top leaders to commit atrocities. Coming back to Modi's statement, one cannot understand why 'urban Naxals' should 'change their appearance' to enter Gujarat? One though that India is a free country and people have the right to travel where they like. Saying this Modi is sowing the seeds of suspicion and as a result of which innocent, helpless and poor people will have to face public attacks. We have seen this in the past where people believing the victims were thieves, robbers and even involved in witchcraft were brutally attacked with some losing their lives. Modi should at least be responsible and avoid inciting such acts. Again what does Modi mean by saying such people will be 'destroyed'? Let him spell out clearly his intentions. Now you can see how the 2002 Gujarat riots were orchestrated where Modi has even got an acquittal from the Supreme Court because of 'lack of evidence'. Actually such statements are made by Modi and his kind, with no semblance of formal or higher education, to drive public frenzy mostly at election times to incite the largely uneducated populace so that they blindly vote for the BJP out of fear and insecurity. And Amit Shah, Modi's Man Friday, is always there to say that at election times political leaders say things which they actually do not mean. As for Modi, you will see that he will not even say sorry or retract or at least say that he was misquoted. He will as usual go into his tortoise shell and come back to revisit these issues when public memory from places other than in Gujarat have forgotten what he actually said. Therefore, do we deserve Modi and such leadership? No. That is why it is time to bring about change. WE NEED CHANGE AND NEED IT NOW!
Nirmala Sitharaman Visits A Vegetable Market In Chennai! : 10 Oct 2022
There was a picture in the papers lately of Nirmala Sitharaman visiting a vegetable market in Chennai ostensibly to buy vegetables. A great photo-op for the FM aligned to the event management strategies followed by her superior, the PM. On another note it is good that she went to the vegetable market, which will enable her to come down to earth with the knowledge of the sky-rocketing pricing of vegetables that is drastically hurting the budgets of common housewives. Or she may come out with a blithe statement, that prices have not really risen since I visited a vegetable market a few years ago. Because at that time I did not have to pay, and even this time I did not pay. Both times I had offered but the vendors did not want to take money from me. So really prices have not gone up! But levity aside a few years ago when vegetable prices were rapidly shooting up because of drought and/or floods, a study was done and it was found that that 40% of the vegetables and fresh produce are wasted in the transition from farm gate to the retail markets. To stop this wastage, it was suggested that cold chains should be set up so that spoilage etc. is reduced if not eliminated. With this increased availability there would be a reining in of a rise in prices. Nothing seems to have been done about this. This inspite of the Modi government being in power for the last 8 years or so. Modi and cohorts among which Nirmala Sitharaman is one should realise that it is easy to blame but difficult to deliver on programs and promises made.
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