By IANS,
New Delhi : Waking up to the pressing problem of undisciplined commuters on its network, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Thursday launched a ‘Citizen’s Volunteer Forum’ to check nuisances and help commuters.
Under the initiative, people travelling along certain stretches of the metro can volunteer to report offenders to authorities.
“The volunteers would be self driven, there is no financial incentive – they will act as wardens and look into various issues such as providing seats to women and the elderly, prevent squatting and playing loud music – basically ensure more discipline and curb nuisance,” said Anuj Dayal, spokesperson DMRC.
The DMRC hopes to initially rope in some 200 volunteers in the coming two weeks, who will then undergo a two-day training programme.
“Interested citizens can fill out forms available with the station managers. The volunteers would be short listed over two rounds.”
Dayal admitted that tackling the problem, with the growing number of 800,000 commuters in the metro daily, would be a difficult task.
“The volunteers will not be authorised to impose fines but can report it to authorities concerned. Maybe just the authority badge that they would wear would act as a deterrent for offenders,” he said.
DMRC has caught 71 offenders in the past month and a flying squad caught 18,833 in just 23 days of random checks from July to December.
While this number of volunteers recruited may not be enough to keep vigil on the commuters estimated to reach a figure of 2,000,000 by 2010, Dayal said that the newer coaches with closed circuit TV cameras (CCTVs) would aid the process.
“As many as 616 new coaches will start plying from June 2009 under the second phase of the metro. These will have CCTVs and help step up vigilance,” Dayal added.