In a fresh salvo, the Sheila Dikshit government in Delhi has accused the city police of "completely deviating" from its core duties and "trivialising" the issue of safety of women.

In a letter to Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, the government said that instead of focussing on improving law and order in the city, the police are much more interested in issues like unauthorised constructions and granting various licenses.

"We would humbly like to request you to kindly look deep into the internal functioning of the police which currently has completely deviated from the core policing and is much more interested in issues like unauthorised constructions and licensing," the government said.

It requested the Home Minister to ask the police "not to make an attempt to trivialise the issue of safety of women by shifting the blame to transport sector."

In the wake of the December 16 gangrape of a 23-year-old, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had been critical of functioning of the police and demanded the resignation of Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar.

Keeping up her offensive against Delhi Police, Dikshit had last week said she was "glad" that Justice J S Verma Committee report had "vindicated" her stand on conduct of the force in the aftermath of the brutal gang- rape.

In the letter to Shinde, Delhi government also questioned the functioning of the Traffic Police saying it hardly shares any information with the city's Transport department.

"Though Traffic Police is the main agency for enforcement of the Motor Vehicle Act and Rules, there is hardly any information shared by Traffic Police with the Transport department.

"It is a very strange situation where the Traffic Police is enforcing the provision of the Act on behalf of the Transport department in view of certain powers delegated to it, but it reports to somebody else," the letter, a copy of which is with PTI, said.

Sources said Delhi Police had conveyed to higher authorities about "slack" rules and regulations by the Transport department of Delhi government.

Unhappy with the functioning of the department, Lt Governor Tejendra Khanna had earlier this month directed Delhi government to take a series of steps like installing CCTV cameras and GPS devices onboard all public buses.

Khanna has also asked the government to issue Public Service Badges in the form of photo identity card to drivers of all types of public utility vehicles including government and private buses, taxis, auto-rickshaws and radio taxis after proper verification and clearance by police.

In the letter, the government also asked Shinde to clear a long-pending proposal to set up an umbrella body for comprehensive planning, operation and management of transport sector in the city. The proposed Delhi Urban Mass Transit Authority (DUMTA) is envisaged to function as a nodal agency.

"It would be an authority on the lines of Land Transport Authority of Singapore, Transport for London for city of London and Mass Transit Authority for City of New Work. The authority is proposed to be an apex multi-member representative body to be headed by the Chief Minister as chairperson with several members from various organisations including from Delhi Traffic Police," it said.

The Delhi cabinet had cleared the proposal for setting up of the DUMTA in 2010 and had been waiting for the approval of the Home Ministry for tabling a bill in Delhi assembly in this regard. As per the Delhi government proposal, PWD and Traffic Police will work under DUMTA.

In 2008, Dikshit had written a letter to the then Home Minister P Chidambaram requesting him to bring traffic police under the city government. Delhi government claimed Chidambaram had consented to establish a body to integrate the functioning of various departments related to transport.

"There were certain issues raised by the Delhi Police and other organisations, to which the government has already responded to," said the letter.