New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Delhi has witnessed a dip in in the crime rate in the first half of 2011  with heinous crimes dropping by 2.7 percent over the same period last year, the Delhi Police chief said Saturday. Road accidents have also declined by over eight percent.

 
 "Crimes per lakh population have decreased from last year's rate of 313.6 to 311.23 this year," Commissioner of Police B.K. Gupta said at the 'half-yearly' press briefing. 
 
 He announced that 155 new emergency response vehicles, one per police station, have been introduced with an aim to perform anti-terror tasks and be the first one to respond to a distress call.
 
 Fewer lives were lost in fatal accidents on Delhi's roads in the first six months this year as compared to last year, he said, adding the drop has been of over eight percent.
 
 A total of 970 people were killed in accidents this year as compared to 1,062 during the comparable period in 2010, while the the number of fatal accidents has gone down from 1,026 in the first six months of 2010 to 944 this year, Gupta said.
 
 He cited increased surveillance and regular crackdowns against traffic violations like drunken driving for the drop.
 
 However, drug trafficking has been emerging an issue with the amount of heroin seized in Delhi in the first six months of 2011 being three times more than the quantity recovered in the same period last year.
 
 "We have recovered 24.659 kg heroin in six months of 2011 as against 6.079 kg heroin during the same period of 2010. The recovery of opium is 50.800 kg in 2011, against the seizure of 10.720 kg last year," he said.  
 
 Gupta also said the capital will get 450 more women constables within two months.
 
 "Around 450 women police personnel will join the force in September. We will post them at visible spots of the city like Connaught Place," he said,
 
 "Till now women were into desk jobs at police stations but now we are encouraging them to go out and manage traffic and patrol the city," he added.
 
 He said over 7,500 people have been profiled in the Shobhit Modi murder case and police was trying their best to solve the crime.
 
 "About 7,500 people have been profiled so far. Right from auto drivers to the employees of the mall, which Shobhit visited, to his friends. We cannot rule out anything yet," Gupta told reporters here.
 
 Twenty-year-old Shobhit, an engineering student, was stabbed to death near his residence at Vasant Kunj May 5. 
 
 Gupta said the recent low-intensity blast outside Delhi High Court on 25 May this year has some similarities with the blast that occurred in Mehrauli in 2008, as both were low-intensity and no group had claimed the responsibility in both cases.
 
 Reiterating his stand on the forcible eviction of yoga guru Baba Ramdev from the Ramlila Ground here last month, Gupta said his team was not at fault.
 
 "The police actions have been recorded by the cameras of many news channels and they prove that the police cannot be blamed," he said.
 
 Delhi Police forcibly dispersed Ramdev and thousands of his supporters from the Ramlila Ground on the night of June 4-5. The people had gathered there to protest corruption and black money.
 
 Police earlier refuted charges of using batons during the crackdown, and said they were forced to retaliate after the yoga guru's supporters threw stones and flowerpots at them.