Northeast delegation to discuss safety of women with Dikshit

NEW DELHI - A delegation of activists and lawyers from the northeast will meet Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Friday to discuss safety of women from the region in the capital.

The meeting comes in the wake of the gangrape of a BPO staffer from Mizoram last week. The delegation will be accompanied by members of the NGO Nirantar.

“We are going to meet the chief minister tomorrow (Friday) to discuss the issue of safety of northeastern women in the city and press for immediate action in ensuring that,” Madhu Chandra, spokesperson of the Northeast Support Centre and Helpline, told IANS.

Chandra said a team of two Delhi Police officials also met him Thursday to discuss how they could make the city safer for women from the northeast.

“The police officials asked me how can we work together to make the city safer for northeastern women. I gave them two suggestions - one, which they had earlier agreed to, was for more police patrolling in the ‘unsafe’ areas of the city. We also submitted a list of such places,” Chandra said.

“Second, I suggested that we should have sensitisation campaigns on the issue so that people in general stop discriminating the northeastern community. As a start, we will have a public awareness meeting in Dwarka sometime this month in which people from the area and police officials will be involved,” he added.

A huge amount of public pressure has been mounting on the authorities for speedy justice in the gangrape case and in taking immediate measures to make the city safer for women. On Monday and Wednesday, protests were organised in the capital to stress the point.

Delhi Police Thursday said two of the five accused in the gangrape of the woman, who was abducted soon after she was dropped off by the office vehicle in Dhaula Kuan area, have been arrested.

Officials said three others had been identified.