South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha inaugurating the CCTV surveillance cameras monitoring centre at the Margao district police headquarters. Santosh Mirajkar.
MARGAO
Beware, Madgavkars and Saxttikars. The 'Big Brother' is once againg keeping a watch on the movements of both men and vehicles in the commercial capital.
Around 20 Close Circuit TV (CCTV) surveillance cameras, were commissioned on Sunday and 60 more are in the pipeline, with South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha promising to chip in from his MPLAD funds to make the project a reality.
In fact, Sunday saw the South Goa MP inaugurating the CCTV surveillance control room at the Margao district headquarters in the presence of Leader of Opposition DigambarKamat, district Collector Ajit Roy, district Police Chief Pankaj Kumar Singh, Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes, DySP Sahil Narangal, DySP Traffic Prabodh Shirodkar and others.
In his brief address, the South Goa MP said that safety and Security of the People must be the first priority of any government, adding that it is the responsibility of every elected representative to ensure that citizens in their constituencies always remain safe.
Appreciating the efforts of Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, he said the Opposition leader impressed upon him to sanction funds from the MPLAD to install CCTV Cameras in Margao. Sardinha said he would sanction more funds for the installation of 60 cameras across the city as and when he receives funds under the MPLAD scheme.
“Last time round in 2014, I had sanctioned funds for the CCTV camera scheme, but non-maintenance had rendered the cameras defunct. CCTV cameras are the need of the hour to keep the anti socials at bay,” Sardinha said.
Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat thanked various residents and shop owners who have voluntarily given electric connections to make the CCTVs functional. He also thanked South Goa MP for his commitment & also appreciated the efforts of South Goa Collector Ajit Roy, SP South Pankaj Kumar Singh & Margao CO Agnelo Fernandes for expeditiously taking steps to re-install the cameras. He also lauded the efforts of Nupur Technology for their prompt action in repairing & re-commissioning the cameras.
“The need for CCTV cameras was felt the most in the commercial capital when a young city jeweller Swapnil Walke was murdered in broad daylight, That time, the police struggled to obtain clues in the absence of the cameras, with most of the cameras lying defunct for want of maintenance,” Kamat said, adding that the MMC Chief Officer has now promised to take care of the maintenance.
In his brief address, South Goa Collector Ajit Roy said that the law enforcing authorities will take every possible step to ensure safety and security of citizens.
South Goa district Police Chief SP Pankaj Kumar Singh appealed to the people to co-operate with the police department and follow laws of the land which will help in maintaining law and order.
The ten cameras installed and re-commissioned on Sunday will cover important locations in the city which will also help in keeping a check on traffic violators.
