New Delhi: Worried that a bad road lights up making women in the city feel insecure and prevent them from coming out after dusk, the Delhi government has asked the center to release Rs 11.3 Crore under the Nirda Fund so that it can identify and illuminate more than 1,000 spots dark .
Officials said that this problem was discussed at a high-level government task meeting on women’s safety last week.
The meeting was chaired by Lieutenant Governor of Anil Baijal.
The NIRBHAY fund was founded by the center in 2013 to be used to ensure women’s safety with an annual allocation of RS 1,000 Crore.
Sources, however, said that the use of funds had occurred so far, with only a few countries spending money on steps to improve women’s security.
The Delhi government, officials said, had previously been seeking revocation of NIRBHaya funds for installing CCTV cameras and made provisions for GPS and panic alarms.
The source, however, claimed that the center rejected funds for this purpose.
A senior Delhi official said that the additional school principal (home) had spoken with a joint secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs for early sanctions of money.
“The Delhi government has even written to the center twice for the Allocation of Rs 11.3 Crore to illuminate dark spots and develop a portal to monitor the function of the street light.
The request is under the consideration of MHA,” said an official asking anonymity.
According to officials, Safetipin, an NGO who has special skills and experiences to find out the infrastructure lacuna on the street of women’s safety, previously conducted a survey and identified 421 stretches with nearly 40,000 dark spots throughout the capital.
While most places identified by NGOs have been illuminated, some who fall under the jurisdiction of North DMC and South DMC are left due to fund constraints.
“Both civil bodies have submitted a project report with estimates to carry out lighting 923 and 483 dark spots left.
If we get funds from the center, the places will soon be illuminated,” said a civil body official.
Meanwhile, the Department of Training and Technical Education The Delhi government has provided Rs 11.1 Lakh to IIIT-Delhi for the development of a centralized application to monitor street light functions.