NEW DELHI: In a bid to make Lucknow a safer city for women, the Union Home Ministry will finance a project under which the city will have 'pink' police outposts set up with an all-woman staff to register complaints. Approval for the 'Safe City Project' is part of the Centre's plans to implement safe city projects in eight selected cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.
The Rs 194.44 crore project will get funds from the Nirbhaya scheme, under which the city will also have night patrols by policewomen and women help desks in all police stations with counsellors. The project would be implemented as a Centrally sponsored scheme, with the Centre and the state sharing the funding in a 60:40 ratio, the ministry said on Thursday.
Incidentally, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is a Lok Sabha member from Lucknow.
The other components of the project are an augmentation of existing Asha Jyoti Kendras, implementing safety measures in buses, including the installation of cameras, improving street lighting, and integration of a women power helpline with a single emergency number, 112. The project also envisages gender sensitisation awareness campaigns.