‘Pink Patrol’ launched in Lucknow: 100 two-wheelers, 10 four-wheelers to safeguard women in city

New Delhi: Safeguarding the women and keeping a check on crimes against them seems be to be top priority of Uttar Pradesh government. ‘Pink Patrol’ is a promising project in this direction.

Patrolling of streets and public places by women cops, admission of complaint by women constables will go a long way in enabling women to visit police stations and lodge complaint against any harassment or eve-teasing or any other serious crime.

UP Governor Anandiben Patel on Saturday flagged off 100 ‘pink’ two-wheelers and 10 four-wheeler police vehicles for ‘Pink Patrol’, under the ‘Safe City Project’.

The Pink Patrol campaign, set to run for 180 days initially will seek to strengthen women’s security in public places.

“We all have a responsibility towards the safety of women, it is not the responsibility of anyone department or an officer. The proceedings of every case of atrocities against women should be solved on time. We should take a pledge that there should not be a single incident of crime against women,” UP Governor said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had approved the Safe City Project for Lucknow at a cost of Rs 194.44 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund in November 2018. The project is implemented as a centrally sponsored scheme with the Centre and State sharing the funding in 60:40 ratio.

This approval was a part of MHA’s plans to implement ‘Safe City projects’ in eight selected cities, namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow under Nirbhaya Fund, with the purpose of strengthening safety and security of women in public places.

How Safe City project will safeguard city & women

# The major components of the Safe City Project in Lucknow includes
#  Setting up an Integrated Smart Control Room,
#  Setting up Pink Outposts (exclusively administered by Women police) for facilitating ease of filing complaint by women,

#  Pink Patrols of Women police, Setting up Women Help Desks in all Police Stations with Counsellors,
# Augmentation of existing Asha Jyoti Kendra,
#  Implementing Safety measures in buses, including Cameras,
#  Improving Street Lighting in identified Hot Spot areas, Setting up Pink Toilets and
#  Integration of Women power-help line with single Emergency number ‘112’.