Delhi police makes GPS mandatory for office cabs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, Republic of (Free-Press-Release.com) February 24, 2012 -- NITISH K. SINGH New Delhi | 7th Aug

The Delhi police has made the installation of Global Positioning System (GPS) mandatory in all taxis ferrying women employees of BPOs, media firms and corporate houses.
The order came into effect a few days ago and any violation could attract fines and prison terms for both the employer and the transporters. The Delhi police has already started checking taxis dropping women employees at night.

The Delhi police has also asked companies to ensure that their women employees get dropped at their homes and not on the roads and asked them to maintain a proper system, including a logbook, for dropping female employees.
"Any person, employer or transporter violating this order will be liable for punishment under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code. First time offenders will be sentenced to one month's imprisonment or given a fine of Rs 200 or both. The second violation will lead to six months of imprisonment or a fine of Rs 1,000 or both," said Rajan Bhagat, spokesperson of the Delhi police.

Delhi police officials had met the senior management of BPOs in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida in November 2010, after a girl was abducted from Dhaula Kuan and raped. She had been dropped on the road by her office vehicle. The police then had asked the BPOs to install GPS devices in their taxis. However, it had not set a deadline. The Gurgaon police had also asked BPOs to install the tracking device in their taxis.
The Delhi police order has also asked employers to ensure that woman employees are not made to travel alone with the taxi driver at night. "A duly verified security guard or a male colleague, who is a regular employee of the company, should be present in each cab ferrying women staff," the Delhi police order says.

Transporters, however, have their own problems. They complain that there are not enough service providers for installing GPS devices. In fact, some transporters have developed their own software for GPS. They say that for the proper functioning of GPS, three servers are involved. The installation cost for a GPS device is between Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000. "We are facing various problems and are trying to find a solution to them," said Tarun Jain of Legend Transport Solutions.

SOURCE: http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/delhi-police-makes-gps-mandatory-for-office-cabs