Sonia letter gets MHA on its feet

Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s move to review preventive steps to be taken by the police followed a strongly-worded letter from Congress president Sonia Gandhi to him as well as Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s move to review preventive steps to be taken by the police followed a strongly-worded letter from Congress president Sonia Gandhi to him as well as Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

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In a statement tabled in Parliament after meeting Delhi Police officers and transport officials, Shinde asked the police to bar drivers and staff of public transport bodies — whose antecedents have not been verified — from plying vehicles.

Shinde’s meeting with the police brass was unusual. Legally, Delhi is a union territory with a legislative assembly and the union home ministry does have the last word. But the policing standards in the capital are reviewed by the lieutenant governor.

“It is a shame for us, who are responsible for the security of our cities that a young woman can be raped in a moving bus in the capital and flung on to the street… The security agencies must be motivated,” the Congress president wrote.