DTC to run 'ladies special' on route 544

New Delhi: The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) on Tuesday announced a morning and evening 'ladies special bus service' within a week after a molestation incident involving a Delhi University student on DTC bus route 544 came to light.

The decision came after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj called for an urgent meeting with the DTC, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), Delhi police and the transport department on complaints of eve-teasing along Kamla Nehru and Gargi colleges' route.

On October 3, a news portal had reported a harrowing story of a 19-year-old psychology student of Kamala Nehru College and how, within three months of moving to Delhi, she was 'molested'on a DTC bus seven times on route 544.

The report came at a time when #MeToo is flooding the social media with stories of women being harassed or molested and caught the attention of everyone on Twitter. One woman also claimed that molestation on route 544 has been happening since 1985.

Bharadwaj, the MLA from Greater Kailash constituency, said all the girls complained of a common problem – eve-teasing around the campus.

"Girls from three colleges – Kamla Nehru, Gargi, and Jija Bai Polytechnic – said that they face eve-teasing around the campus, on the roads, and in the buses," Bharadwaj said.

He said, people roam around the campuses in their cars and sometimes, on the pretext of asking for an address, they call the girls and 'do something nasty,' following which the girls would run away. "The cars then follow the girls," he said.

"The girls said that although the police had put barricades in the vicinity, they (culprits) ignored all this," he added.

During the meeting, Bharadwaj said, the girls demanded that a Metro feeder bus should run on the route.

"Talking to the stakeholders, we found that a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) feeder bus service called ML-74 is supposed to ply through the route. But the bus has been violating its route and travelling through another route and this is visible in DMRC's GPS systems," Bharadwaj, AAP's chief spokesperson said.

As per the demands of the students, he said, the DMRC will run a Metro feeder bus service on route 544. "Also, the Delhi Transport Authority has promised to take action against bus marshals for negligence," Bharadwaj said.

Route 544 runs from R K Puram, through AIIMS, and the Siri Fort Road till its terminal point at Badarpur border. On its way, it stops at prominent all-girl colleges such as Gargi and Kamala Nehru.