Surveillance gets low importance

Karachi’s ambitious project to install 10,000 video surveillance cameras here seems to have gone out of government priorities, as it got only Rs11 million for next financial year. However, a major part of a similar project included in ‘Safe City’ program was duly covered on priority. Thousands of high resolution surveillance cameras are to be purchased under ‘Safe City’ project, but it did not reflect in the budget.  Only Rs60m had been allocated for the scheme, approved in October 2016 and is to be completed by 2020, but not a single penny was spent on it in current fiscal year budget. Sindh Police Video System Extension has been given Rs10.9m for next fiscal year. The project is an integral part of the scheme in which 10,000 cameras will be installed at 2,000 locations in Karachi. Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah had approved the project in October 2016 and said the cameras would be installed in three years. Officials said that over 2,000 areas had been identified in terms of criminal activities for installing cameras which would be connected with command and control centre. The government had earlier allocated Rs200m for installing surveillance cameras at places of worship of minority communities in Sindh, and Rs100m had been released during current fiscal. Officials admitted the spending is not more than 11% of released amount. The project was initiated in 2016 after certain places of worship had been vandalised and some received threats.