Baddi-Barotiwala area a crime hub

Ambika Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Solan,May 17

Fear of law appears to have reached its lowest ebb in the  industrial area of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) where two murders have been executed in cold blood  in the last 12 days. 

  The manner in which  a 20-year old girl was killed  at Jharmajri  in the Barotiwala industrial area on Thursday has proved that the place is no longer safe for women.  The murder of the  cousin  of a former Congress MLA on May 6 was another case of  heinous crime which reflected on the lack of fear of law. 

 The area where a large number of company executives both men and women stay along with a lakhs  of migrant labourers has become unsafe with the emergence of such crimes every now and then. While police officials were reluctant to part with figures of various crimes, a cursory assessment revealed that rapes, murders and accidents were the oft-repated crimes plaguing this industrial belt. 

A question mark has also been put on the safety of women residing in the  numerous apartments which have been hired by various pharmaceutical companies to house their women staff.  The accused not only managed to enter the victim’s flat with ease but also walked away  after the crime. Though the police managed to arrest him later but the incident has exposed the abject lack of safety of  the working women in this industrial belt.

This was not the first case of murder which has taken place in an apartment and some years ago a young company executive had lost his life in another such incident.

  The area also has high accident rates where as many as 47 have been reported in the first four months of this year as against 55 of the corresponding period in the last year. With volume of traffic being much higher than the road capacity and use of drugs and alcohol among the drivers coming to fore , the road discipline left much to be desired. 

DSP, Baddi, Khajana Ram, while agreeing to the lack of security in the Hill View Apartments where the mishap took place, said since families also resided in the same apartment, there was no restriction on the movement of people. The pharmaceutical company, which had hired this accommodation, failed to ensure the safety of its trainees.