Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will soon install CCTV cameras in its buses to prevent people from creating menace.
In its initial stage only about 500 BMTC busses will have the cameras installed.
This effort is to ensure safety of women travellers and to keep troublemakers in check. Last year, two sisters from Bhutan were allegedly manhandled by the bus crew of a BMTC Volvo. Both the bus driver and conductor of the vehicle were suspended.
The cameras would monitor crew behaviour as well as potential molesters, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy told The Hindu. The installation process of these cameras would begin soon since tenders have been called.
This month, Bangalore was in for a shock when the National Crime Records Bureau rated the second most unsafe city for women after Delhi.
During 2012, a total of 3699 cases of crime against women were reported in the state. Among them were 621 cases rape, 2978 of molestation and 100 of sexual harassment.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Pronab Mohanty agreed that bad policing had a role in 2,263 cases of crime but there are concerned social issues that should be dealt with separately first.
Gradually, all BMTC buses operating late in the evenings in Bangalore will have CCTV cameras.
Moreover, one may expect these buses to end up commuting school children. The corporation this month had decided to sell some of their buses to educational institutes in moderate prices or hire them on contract basis.
"We cannot operate a bus beyond five to six years, but schools and other institutions with limited usage can utilise them for 15-16 years. Thus, they can invest in our vehicles which will be cheaper for them than new buses," Anjum Parvaz, BMTC Managing Director told a national daily.
