The Centre has ordered an audit of safety and security-related infrastructure created in 12 smart cities. The ministry of housing and urban affairs has ordered the assessment of infrastructure created for citizen safety at public places in 12 smart cities — Agartala, Agra, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Nagpur, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Pimpri Chinchwad, Prayagraj, Rourkela, Surat and Varanasi.
The decision was taken following a discussion at the Cabinet meeting on January 4 over the gruesome incident of a young girl being dragged for a distance after being hit by a car in Delhi on New Year eve.
The closed circuit TV (CCTV) camera footage had helped the police piece together the sequence of events and track the victim’s friend who had abandoned her.
According to sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed at the meeting that an assessment of the infrastructure created in smart cities be done to gauge whether it is adequate and what steps could be taken to use these features to improve citizen safety in public places. The ministry has roped in the Quality Council of India (QCI) to conduct the exercise. Sources said QCI teams will travel to the 12 cities and examine street lighting, traffic management and CCTV infrastructure.
A senior ministry official said, “The teams will assess whether adequate CCTV ..have been deployed, if they are in working condition and if there is a system to monitor the footage. The same parameters will be deployed for street lighting. The audit will identify lacunae in the system and best practices that could be emulated by other cities.
