Centre to focus on technology to make capital safe

The Centre proposes to launch a Rs 2,000 crore project to make six big cities, including the national capital, safe. Besides Delhi, the other cities under the project are Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Under its flagship 'Safe City' project, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked these major cities to focus on 'technological advancement' rather than recruitment of manpower. "The present form of policing is dependent more on manpower and less on technology. Modern policing has to base itself more on technology than on manpower," said a Home Ministry note sent to these cities.

The MHA is learnt to have set a deadline of two years for completion of the project in Delhi. The ministry had recently directed mobile service operators in Delhi and NCR to provide location of a person calling PCRs in distress. The model will be followed in other cities too.

The decision to focus on technology was taken after the December 16 Delhi gangrape case where the MHA found several lapses, including time taken by the police to respond and the attitude of police personnel. The project plans to provide the beat staff with portable fingerprint scanner that will help identify criminals.

Another suggestion made by the MHA is to impart safety education to children on the lines of western countries. "It would be ideal if different boards of education at the Centre and states could be impressed upon to include a chapter on basic concept of community safety and security, community policing, response on emergency situations in the school curriculum," said an official. The project will also focus on attitudinal change in policemen through soft skills training.

Setting up of 'fusion centre' on the lines of western countries — where details like Pan Card number, vehicle registration number, Unique Identification number of suspects will be stored and can be accessed by the police — is another ambitious aspect of the project. However, the MHA is not clear about the safeguard procedure of the fusion centre to prevent misuse of data.

... contd.

ALSO READ

37 years on, Urdu school faces second eviction

Civic agencies could lose Rs 100 crore a year if Haryana buys Rajokri toll plaza: Delhi chief secy

Ghalib returns home, his haveli opens today as public memorial

Cross at your own risk