Police CCTV project in tatters

IT is not only just the waste of public money that the appalling condition of the police CCTV project has exposed. Taken in terms of the damage to life and property that the failure, or non-performance, of the closed circuit television system has caused, it is incalculable. It also betrays scant regard for public money and apathy towards public safety. And were it not for the inquiry into the death of a renowned journalist, this pitiable situation might never have come to light.

In a report carried by the leading Bangla Daily, all the 155 CCTV cameras fixed in important localities and road junctions of the capital are nonfunctional, and the 61 crore taka sunk so far in the project is likely to go down the drain. These cameras were supposed to act as capacity multiplier of the police in terms of not only traffic control but also of safety and security of the citizens in general who were using the roads.

Several shortcomings of the police and the authorities that have approved the project have come to light in the said report. We would like to know why the project has not been taken over by the police even after four years of its completion. Why is it now that the police authorities have found out that the project suffers from certain lacunae for which its purpose cannot be fully met? Was it not the responsibility of the project committees and the end-user to pinpoint this at the seminal stages of the project planning?

We feel that stringent action against those that have caused an important project related to public safety to crash is in order. It is time that government and its agencies stopped treating public money as pittance.