DMP's hi-tech toy!
The DS of 16 Aug 09 informs us that Dhaka Metropolitan Police are installing an “intricate Tk 61 crore control room with C3S, 155 CCTV cameras and 31 dot matrix displays at important intersections” that “will curb street crime and traffic congestion”. Could the DMP inform us, ignorant plebeians, how it will do so?
1. Will it show a lady being mugged a km away and if so, how will the police get to her before the muggers decamp with the booty? Do they have helicopters also, because it is certain they themselves will be stuck in a traffic jam? Ditto for dacoity, armed robberies, extortion (by cadres and police alike), tender snatching, drug dealings, fire etc etc..
2. What good is it if a man stuck in gridlock is shown there is more ahead?
3. Since when did Brunei achieve expertise in I/T based traffic control?
4. What has the commission earned from the deal ?
5. Since such hi-tech mumbo-jumbo installed previously have had a very short life, how long before expensive repairs are necessary to keep the 'commission' ball rolling?
6. What is the expected longevity of the system 61 years, 61 months, 61 weeks or as I expect 61 days before most of the CCTV cameras and dot matrix displays find their way to Dholai Khal. Have the DMP already signed a buy-back agreement with them?
7. Will someone be keeping account of the 4 lakh stretched-out Gas Guzzling Monstrosities occupying 75% of the road, travelling empty/half empty or parked illegally on the road, that is the most obvious cause of gridlocks in Dhaka?
Tk 61 crore is a lot of money to spend for a bunch of coppers sitting in a control room playing computer games. Would not this handsome sum be better spent repairing at least 610,000 pot-holes and roads, streets, lanes and by-lanes in Dhaka? I suppose the orthopaedic practitioners would never have forgiven them!!!!
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