Clear proposal for more police in Delhi, court to Centre

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the union finance ministry to examine and clear, within four weeks, the proposal for inducting over 16,000 personnel in Delhi Police.

A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva also slammed the central government for "dragging its feet" on inducting more personnel in the Delhi Police for security of women.

After the bench was informed that the home ministry has already cleared all the proposals for new recruitment and now, they are under consideration of the finance ministry, it asked the government to take a final decision within four weeks.

Delhi Police had earlier proposed addition of over 16,000 police posts, so that the regular law and order work could be separated from investigation.

On installation of CCTV cameras at 44 "vulnerable areas" identified by police in Delhi, the city government told the court that financial implication of the project would be around Rs.404 crore and it was currently awaiting the home ministry' approval.

Posting the matter for September 23, the court asked the central government to file a status report on the steps taken and progress made in installation of CCTV cameras in national capital.

The court was hearing two PILs relating to women's safety in the capital.