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Public cooperation a must for success of ‘Safe City Project’, says Yogi
CCTV cams should be compulsorily installed at commercial establishments, intersections, government and private hospitals, as well as educational institutions: Chief minister
LUCKNOW Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday emphasized on the role of public cooperation in ensuring the success of the ‘Safe City Project,’ saying that CCTV cams should be compulsorily installed at commercial establishments, intersections, government and private hospitals, as well as educational institutions.
“The importance of CCTVs in crime control should be explained to common people, businessmen, and institution operators in order to encourage them to install cameras,” said the CM while reviewing the progress of the ‘Safe City Project’, according to a statement issued by the state government.
The CM stated that though people can keep their CCTV footage data safe with them, it should be ensured that the footage is only made available to the police, when necessary.
In addition, municipal corporations, the Smart City Project, or local administrations and police will install CCTVs wherever they are needed, he added. Adityanath issued a directive to ensure that all police stations were equipped with CCTV cameras within one week.
He stated that the ‘Safe City Project’ was proving to be helpful in achieving the goal of ensuring women’s safety, dignity, and self-reliance. “Through this project in the state, under the Lucknow Police Commissionerate, modern control rooms, pink police booths, Asha Jyoti Kendras, CCTV cameras, help desks for counsellors in women’s police stations, panic buttons in buses, and other security measures were implemented. Now, we have to expand it further,” said the CM.
The CM said that 17 municipal corporations and Gautam Buddh Nagar were to be developed as ‘safe cities’ in the first phase by implementing financial management through convergence and inter-departmental coordination.
“In the second phase, the municipalities of 57 district headquarters and, in the third phase, 143 municipalities should be linked to the ‘Safe City project’. Special branding should also be done by putting a signboard of ‘Safe City’ at the entrance of all such cities. In this way, UP will be the first state in the country to have the highest number of safe cities (18),” he added.
He said at present, the ‘Safe City’ project was focused on the safety of women. “We should expand it and also link it to the safety of the elderly, children, and divyangjans. Through Safe City, the campaign to create a safe, secure, and empowered environment for women, children, the elderly, and divyangjan people in public places will get the necessary impetus,” said Adityanath.
During the meeting, officers informed that so far the police had identified 9,396 places for installation of CCTVs in Agra, Aligarh, Bareilly, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Moradabad, Prayagraj, Saharanpur, and Varanasi smart cities, out of which 3,489 had been installed with cameras so far.
It was stated that more than 7,600 locations in Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Firozabad, Mathura-Vrindavan, Shahjahanpur, Meerut, and Ghaziabad would have CCTV cameras, and for this, the process of agency selection was underway.
The CM said to realize the concept of Safe City, verification of drivers of public transport vehicles was necessary. “Drivers of taxis, e-rickshaws, autos, tempos, etc. should be duly police-verified,” he emphasised.
