Northeast students welcome Dikshit's promise of better security

Four helplines, a hostel and assurances by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of better security have been welcomed by members of the northeast community living in Delhi.

However, they said they would like to wait and see the effective implementation of these measures before hailing the initiatives.

Last week saw a number of protests by the northeast students against the rising crimes against the community in the capital. The protests were triggered by the murder of a Naga girl by an IIT scholar in her home in south Delhi two weeks ago.

The wide-scale protests, which also saw Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi assuring the students of his support, made the Delhi chief minister to publicly assure the northeast community of better security.

Luikang, president of the Naga Students' Union in the capital, which organised a major protest last week, said: “We are glad that the chief minister responded to our demands of a helpline with immediacy. Mostly such assurances are just empty promises but she met students of the Northeast Students Union and announced the initiatives.”

Dikshit Tuesday said that a hostel for northeast students will be set up in south Delhi and four round-the-clock, toll-free helpline numbers will be set up to help students in emergency.

Madhu Chandra of the Northeast Support Centre, a help centre for the community in Delhi, said: “We are very happy with the Delhi government's initiatives to win back the trust of the northeast students in Delhi and Delhi Police's promise to provide them security.”

“Having said that, I can't help wonder that the government had to wait for the murder of an innocent girl to wake up and take some measures. Crime against the northeast community here has been on the rise and this has been highlighted time and again by us and the media,” he added.

“Also, instead of just hailing these initiatives, we want to wait for a while and see how effective these helpline and other initiatives are,” Chandra told IANS.

Luikang added: “Also, we want all the pending cases of crime against the northeast students in Delhi to be focussed on, so that it acts as a deterrant to anyone who targets innocent students of the community for no fault of theirs.”

Last updated on Nov 4^th, 2009 at 16:58 pm IST--IANS