MARGAO
Margao Municipal Council officials and employees, beware. After lying in a sleep mode for around a decade, the Big Brother has returned to maintain surveillance in and around the civic building.
A total of 30 Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) cameras will maintain surveillance over Chief Officer, heads of various sections and the visitors to the municipal building, beginning from Friday. The Chamber of the Chief Officer has also been brought under the scanner of the Chairperson.
Costing around Rs 2.5 lakh, the 30-CCTV surveillance cameras will maintain a track of the employees in all the sections. Around 26 cameras will keep a close track of the various sections and municipal corridors, while two cameras have been installed outside the building to maintain the visitors entry and exit.
The MMC Chairperson inaugurated the CCTV surveillance cameras in the civic body to mark one year in office. He also launched a plastic-free awareness drive in the SGPDA market by distributing cloth bags.
Briefing the media, Lyndon said he has revived the CCTV cameras in the municipality in order to tone up the administration and make the employees and staff accountable. “There have been complaints from citizens that the employees are not on their seas during office hours. The CCTV cameras will curb all these things in the civic body”, he added.
Though the Chief Officer is the administrative head of the civic body, the Chairperson will be personally manning the cameras via a screen installed in his chamber. The Chairperson is believed to have told the city fathers that he would monitor the movement of employees from home via the mobile phone.
...But no CCTV cameras in MMC chief’s chamber
MARGAO: Even as the CCTV surveillance cameras became a reality after five long years, Margao Municipal Council Chairperson’s chamber is outside the purview of the Third Eye.
No cameras have been installed in the Chairperson’s chamber as part of the Rs 2.5 lakh project. This assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the bitter controversy around half-a-decade ago when then Chief Officer, Naveen L S, IAS had questioned why the MMC Chairperson is not under the CCTV scanner.
In fact, Chief Officer had claimed that the Chairperson’s chamber is not under the CCTV scanner when it is the hotbed of corruption in the civic body.
