Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The defunct panic buttons installed inside the cabs indicate how serious is the administration about women’s safety in the city. After Centre issued guidelines making it compulsory to install panic buttons in cabs and vehicles meant for public commute, the regional transport office (RTO) of Bhopal had swung into action to adhere to the directives.
However, panic buttons have been installed in just 5,000 out of 45,000 public means of transport in Bhopal. They include cabs from companies such as Ola, Uber and Rapido. Other public means of transport are shuttle cabs, e-rickshaws and buses operated by Bhopal City Link Limited.
This is far from the target set by RTO this year. Worse, the panic buttons installed in almost 53% of 5,000 vehicles plying in Bhopal are dysfunctional. The irregularity came to light when Free Press spoke to a section of commuters who take cabs for work and other purposes everyday.
Alisha Siddiqui, a private company employee who travels to MP Nagar daily for work from her house in E-8 Extension told Free Press that sometimes, she leaves office late at night. Recounting an incident that took place almost a month ago, she said she booked a cab and on finding driver’s activities suspicious, pressed the panic button only to find it dysfunctional.
However, the driver saw her doing so, turned circumspect and dropped her home safely. When contacted, Bhopal regional transport officer Jitendra Sharma said he would get all the irregularities checked with immediate effect.
Panic buttons need to be recharged
According to Bhopal RTO official, panic buttons are to be recharged from time to time to continue functioning. In case, the driver does not do so, the cab driven by him goes off the radar and cannot be tracked.
