The much awaited CCTV camera project for Amritsar, which has been hanging fire for the past several years, will finally see the light of day. Cabinet Minister Anil Joshi has promised to implement the much hyped CCTV project soon. He said CCTV cameras would be installed at vital locations, especially near the Golden Temple, Durgiana Temple, Jallianwala Bagh, besides the Civil Lines area. His Amritsar North constituency will also be covered in the first phase of the project. Joshi said the state government had kept Rs 5 crore aside for the project and a survey was underway to install cameras.
Local Bodies Minister Joshi said, “In the first phase the state has set aside Rs 5 crore for the project. The requisite study work on the proposed plan is under progress. After completion of the study, the holy city will witness its implementation in a couple of months. The CCTV cameras will be installed at various vital intersections to keep a check on incidents of crime.”
Nevertheless, this is the third announcement for installing CCTV cameras in various parts of the city in order to curb the crime rate and traffic violations, besides putting vital locations in the holy city under 24 hours surveillance. The project was first envisaged in 2011 by the then Member of Parliament, Navjot Singh Sidhu. Amritsar Improvement Trust was supposed to fund the project, but it could not materialise. Later, while announcing the “Safe City” project in 2013, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had said the entire city would be covered with CCTV cameras by March 2014 at a cost of 100 crore. He had promised to install the cameras first before the 2012 Assembly elections and then during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
