The Delhi government, which has been attacking the City police following the December 16 gang-rape incident, on Thursday came out in defence of the force, saying crime rate in the national capital was much lower than many BJP-ruled states.

Replying to a debate on the deteriorating law and order situation in the city, Health Minister A K Walia came out with statistics to refute BJP’s allegation that Delhi has become the crime capital of the country.

“During 2011, 543 cases of murder were registered in Delhi whereas in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, the figures were 2,511, 3,198, 1,126 and 1,110 respectively.

“Similarly, the cases of rape per lakh population were 5.3 in Bhopal, 5 in Jabalpur, 4.4 in Gwalior, 4.2 in Indore, 3.8 in Faridabad and 2.8 in Delhi,” he said. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit who was supposed to reply to the debate could not do so as she was not well.

The BJP legislators vociferously protested comparison of crime rate in Delhi with that of the party-ruled states and accused the city government of “trivialising” a serious issue.
“How can you compare statistics of large states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh with that of Delhi? The city government is not serious about ensuring safety of women in Delhi,” senior BJP leader V K Malhotra said.

Dikshit had been attacking Delhi Police following the December 16 gang-rape and even demanded resignation of Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar.

Room for improvement

Observing that there was room for improving the performance of city police, Walia said the nexus between “building mafia” and lower level police personnel must be broken. “We will have to break the nexus between building mafia and lower level police personnel,” he said.

Earlier, initiating the discussion, Malhotra demanded the resignation of Dikshit for the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the city.

“The chief minister says her daughter does not feel safe in the city and at the same time in her budget speech she termed Delhi as a safer city. So, which version is true? The chief minister is not serious about the law and order situation in the city,” Malhotra said.

Taking strong objection to Neeraj Kumar’s comment that police should remain under the Centre, the BJP leader said the top cop should not bother about issue which is the domain of legislators.