SRINAGAR : In order to protect women from sexual harassment in public transport, a judge in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district Wednesday told all passenger vehicle owners to register themselves with the police, the first such order in the Muslim-majority region after a woman’s gang-rape in a moving bus in New Delhi created country-wide furore.
Chairing a meeting of district legal services authority in the wake of a gruesome gang-rape in New Delhi, the principal district and sessions judge of Pulwama directed all the passenger vehicle owners to register their vehicles with police, an official statement said.
“The operators shall maintain the record of all types of vehicles carrying women after 5 p.m., including departure timing, destination, vehicle number and name of driver. These registers shall be checked frequently by the assistant regional transport officer and police,” the statement said.
The judge directed the transport officer to conduct awareness camps across the district and notify the help line numbers for registering any complaint of sexual harassment on road side or any public place.
The principal district and session’s judge also directed that stray vehicles or moving vehicles without letter of authority shall not be allowed to operate.
The drivers and conductors of all types of passenger vehicles were directed to display their name and contact numbers in bold at conspicuous places both inside and outside their vehicles, according to the official statement.
“All suggestive pictures, posters, graffiti, poetry and innuendo written on the public vehicles shall be removed immediately,” the statement said.
“The presence of police at all vulnerable places of the district shall be increased and the vehicles operating after 5 p.m. shall be checked more rigorously,” it said.
(with inputs from IANS)
