Dark stretches on Gurugram’s MG Road a concern, need to improve deployment of women police personnel

At least six streetlights were found to be non-functional on the main road connecting the MG Road Metro Station and Sikandarpur Metro Station in Gurugram.

About a week after 40 women police personnel were deployed in two shifts for safety of women on MG Road and Sector 29, Hindustan Times did a spot check of the areas on Sunday night.

Women police personnel stand guard at a dark strech of road between MG Road and Sikanderpur metro stations. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

On MG Road, the women police personnel were found to be deployed mostly in one area and there were no cops at MG Road Metro Station and Sikandarpur Metro Station. Besides, at least six streetlights were found non-functional on the main road, connecting the two metro stations.

At MG Road Metro Station Gate 2, near MGF Metropolitan Mall at 9.57pm

None of the newly deployed personnel were found at the spot. Three women visitors also said that they did not see any women police personnel in the area.

Sporting a grey t-shirt, Lisa, 23, from Nagaland, who had come to a mall with a friend said, “No, I have not seen any women police personnel here. But I had seen them near Sahara Mall the other day.”

Atleast six street lights were not working between MG Road and Sikanderpur metro stations in Gurugram, India, on Monday, July 2, 2018. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

At a bus stop ahead of the metro station, which was not directly visible from the crowded area, two women personnel in their early twenties, were at the spot.

“We have been coming here for the past five to six days. Nothing much is happening here as such we are deputed elsewhere also,” said Sunita, 22, one of the policewomen who goes by single name.

At MG Road Metro Station Gate 1 around 11.34 pm

At least half a dozen women commuters were found in the area, but there were no women police personnel.

“I have never seen any women police (officers) here. There should be one or two women officers,” said Swati Sinha, 28, who was waiting for a cab with five of her family members.

When asked whether she felt safe in the area, she shook her head and said: “Not at all.”

Jyoti, 24, who was seated in a sharing auto-rickshaw also had a similar opinion. “For our safety, we rely on ourselves,” she said. “We avoid travelling late in the night,” Jyoti, who uses single name. She was travelling with her three women friends.

Opposite Sahara Mall at around 10.27pm

Two women police personnel were stationed but not found patrolling the area in an about 100 metre-long dark stretch of road. There were no streetlights between Metro pillar number 84 and 90. The incharge police officer of the area said that women personnel have been coming from police lines for night duty for the last one week.

“It has intensified the police vigilance in the area,” said the officer who wished not to be named.

Forty women police personnel have been deployed in two shifts for safety of women on Gurugram’s MG Road and Sector 29 for about a week. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Sikandarpur Metro Station at 10:45 pm

None of the new women police officers were found at the gates of the metro stations, which was also confirmed by auto drivers in the area.

At Sahara Mall around 11:02 pm, there were around six women police personnel in the area, but none was found in the service lanes.

In Sector 29 market, around 12.08 am about six women police officers were found deployed in one area only. The women visitors said that they did not see the newly deployed personnel in the market.

KK Rao, Gurugram commissioner of police, said that the force was deployed to curb problems faced by people who visit pubs and bars and hence the women personnel were not deployed at metro stations.

On the deployment being limited to a certain area, he said: “We had identified problem areas and deployed the women officers only in those stretches.”