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No lifts, errant cab drivers to face action
In a bid to safeguard passengers from becoming prey to highway robbery gangs, the city traffic police department has decided to start penalising the BPO cab drivers and other vehicles for illegally ferrying passengers at various locations across Gurgaon, including the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. Leena Dhankhar reports.
In a bid to safeguard passengers from becoming prey to highway robbery gangs, the city traffic police department has decided to start penalising the BPO cab drivers and other vehicles for illegally ferrying passengers at various locations across Gurgaon, including the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.
At Iffco Chowk, the police on Wednesday installed hoardings to warn passengers against taking a lift from strangers. Similar hoardings will be put at other locations as well.
The move came after Hindustan Times, through a 21-day campaign, highlighted problems due to the lack of safety measures in the city.
The hoarding was installed at Iffco Chowk first because many incidents of robbery have been reported from the spot in the recent past, the police said.
In the absence of proper intra-city transport facilities, most of the commuters here are forced to take a lift in unknown vehicles, risking their lives. Since there is no public transport at night, those coming to the city via Metro and inter-state buses after 10pm have to face a lot of problems.
"The hoarding would spread awareness among commuters. Traffic officials would start penalising the cab drivers offering lifts to strangers. The hoardings were urgently required and within 15 days it would be installed at all major intersections in the city," said Maheshwar Dayal, joint commissioner of police, Gurgaon.
Meanwhile, commuters are finding it difficulty to travel back home after office as 40% of them are used to taking lifts from unknown people and cab drivers. A daily commuter, Vidhya Solanki, said, "Neither the public transport is available at night nor the auto-rickshaws are safe."
In some cases, even the cab drivers have become victims of carjacking and robbery after offering lifts to strangers.
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