States, UTs to ensure stoppage of web-based taxi services: Government

New Delhi, Dec 9: Condemning the rape of a young executive in a cab in the national capital, the Centre on Tuesday asked all states and Union territories to ensure stoppage of web-based taxi services, including Uber.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs has advised the state governments/UT administrations to ensure that the operations of the web-based taxi services are stopped," Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in a suo motu statement in Rajya Sabha.

Promising to initiate all steps to ensure safety and security of women and children in the country, Singh said the Centre has advised states to prohibit such service providers which are not licensees with them.

He, however, made it clear that the Government was not in favour of banning taxi services but wanted to regulate their operations. "I want to say that our intentions should not be questioned in this regard," he said.

"The government of India strongly condemns this dastardly act. It will be ensured that all necessary steps are taken to bring the offender to justice," he said.

Singh said the Delhi Police is also exploring the issue of possible legal liability of the taxi service Uber in the crime committed and the Transport Department has already banned it.

Terming the incident as a "national shame," he said as a Home Minister, the case has further "pained" him.

He said that the accused, who was earlier was apprehended on charges of rape and was subsequently acquitted after a year, had managed to procure a "fake" character certificate.

On concerns of members that isolated places were hardly manned, the Home Minister said a vigil is being done at 255 sensitive identified locations/roads in the Capital.

"To ensure security in such places I will call a meeting of top officials soon," he said.

Enunciating steps to ensure women's safety in the capital, Singh said, "CCTV cameras have been installed in 200 buses and 3,707 CCTV cameras in public places, while 1,518 more are planned.

"We will ensure that PCR vans initiate actions soon after any complaint," he said, adding that the strength of PCR vans would be raised to 1,000 soon.

PTI