The five-day-old anti-eve-teasing cell has not booked a single stalker yet in a city where fear stalks girls on roads even in the daytime apparently because none of the offences they came across were “big”.

The 10-member cell constituted on July 1 intercepted five to six people for passing lewd comments at women or ogling at them on each of the five days. But the teasers were let off with a warning.

An officer at Women’s police station told The Telegraph: “The cell has been working for five days now. On an average, five to six people are caught everyday. The team has not arrested anybody yet because it has not come across any ‘big’ incident of eve-teasing so far. The cell has just started to operate. Women cops in civil dress are moving from one place to another as baits. Those caught teasing them are being given a strict warning. Strict action will be taken in case of any serious incident.”

The women of the city took strong exception to the classification of teasing incidents into “big” and “small”. A college student told The Telegraph: “What do the police mean by a big incident of eve-teasing? Any incident of eve-teasing, small or big, is serious. The cops should realise how women feel when someone passes lewd comments at them casually or tries to grope them. It seems the police are not serious about tightening the noose around teasers.”

A student of Patna Women’s College said: “The casual attitude of the cops will not help women at all and strict action should be taken against stalkers. Many of us do carry deodorants or even chilli powder to thwart the advances of rogues. But the best way to tackle an eve-teaser is to scream in public.”

The Telegraph reported in its July 5, 2013 edition the plight of women on the city streets. Six victims of eve-teasing relived their embarrassing moments. Some of them mustered courage to resist their tormentors. A couple of them were helped by their peers to dare the teasers. But a shaken college student has given up attending classes, fearing a repeat of what she underwent in a market.

On Thursday, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj had said an anti-eve-teasing cell had been constituted to safeguard the women from teasers. But the classification of teasing incidents into big and small by one of his colleagues a day on has cast a shadow on the sensitivity of the police force towards the traumatised women.

The newly constituted anti-eve-teasing cell comprises six lady sub-inspectors, and two male and two female constables. A lady inspector monitors it.

Explaining the functioning of the cell, Manu said: “The women sub-inspectors visit places where eve-teasing is rampant. The male and female constables accompany them. Whenever someone passes lewd comments at the female sub-inspectors, the constables in civil clothes intercept the offenders. The number of members in the team would be increased in the future.”

While the anti-eve-teasing cell is yet to act tough against the teasers, the district administration also appears to be casual towards the safety of women travelling in autorickshaws. It had directed all the three-wheeler drivers on May 23 to install lights inside their vehicles and keep them on after sunset. June 15 was the deadline to follow the directive. Fifty days after the deadline, several autorickshaws are still plying in the city without lights. Neither the cops, nor the administrative officials revisited the status of the directive until now. An autorickshaw driver on the Boring Road route said he never heard about the order on lights.

A traffic police officer promised a drive against three-wheelers plying without lights at night.