The Secretary and Director Tourism Mathew Samuels usedpragmatism laced with sarcasm to blur out his predecessor Swapnail Naiks grandplan of installing night vision CCTV cameras in Goas beaches, to man the coaststo check for illegal activity.
“The mindset of the government in Goa and the people is thatthe CCTV is a solution to all security issues. People across the globe are sosmart and know how to avoid cameras. Even the Goa police have written to us toinstruct every shack to install CCTV facing the beach and the entrance to keepa track of tourists. I think I should advise the state to launch a satellite inspace and lets all just sit and watch everything”, he said
Samuel’s asserted that policing and surveillance needs toimprove to crack down on problems like narcotics and to improve the security oftourists.
But GTDC Chairman and MLA Nilesh Cabral has a differentvision. He asserted that he intended to push for the implementation of theproject with the Chief Minister raising the issue of beach security in theLegislative Assembly.
The Digambar Kamat government was all set to install nightvision cameras on various beaches to track the movement of trawlers and otheractivities taking place on the beach.
The former Director Mr Swapnil Naik had said last June thatthe state’s beaches and major tourist spots would be tracked by night visioncameras installed with remote viewing and recording facilities. Currently, a few beaches have closed circuittelevision (CCTV) cameras installed on the Drishti Special Response Service(DSRS) towers.
Mr Naik had stated that the purpose was to keep a tab on themovement of people at night and to aid the DSRS and reduce beach deaths due todrowning.
The night vision camera bids were opened onJuly 16, 2011 until August 8, 2011. Bidders would have to provide a recordingfacility capable of a minimum of 7 days. The cameras would have to be capable ofproviding remote viewing from any location since a lot of events, parties,camping took place on the beach at night.
The Directorate of Tourism parameters for the bids includedshockproof cameras, night vision, 360 degree rotation, 125 degree tilt rotationcapabilities, all-weather resistant with high definition imaging forall-weather viewing built-in wipers and lightning protectors. Cost of the project was pegged at Rs 1.9crore to be funded by the government.
While former tourism minister Nilkanth Halarnkar blames thecode of conduct for the non-implementation of his pet project despite all the proceduresbeing completed, “It’s definitely a good move towards security as long as theimages are not misused by the authorities concerned. The privacy issue shouldbe raised while reviewing the bids,” stated Mr Pepe Coutinho, a shack ownerfrom Benaulim who like many tourist and shack owners fear a breach of securityand misuse of footage taken from the beach.
The move for cameras was also initiated because environmentalistsopposed high mast lamps on the beaches as turtles get attracted towards thelight. The tourism department had plans to installnight vision cameras at 32 beach locations. These include 13 places in North Goaand 19 locations in South Goa.
