The police and the elected corporators of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) are thinking of joining hands for a good cause.
To monitor suspicious movements, especially during Ganeshotsav, police officials are appealing to the corporators to donate money from their corporator funds, which are given to them by the civic body. Several corporators in principle, agreed to do the needful.
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The police had already surveyed the city and were planning to install high-tech American-made Infinova CCTV cameras, exclusively, in the sensitive areas of the city.u00a0“The city actually requires 1,000 CCTV cameras for connecting all the 33 police stations. We had submitted the proposal to the home department and have been awaiting their response for the last eight months. The issue will be resolved if the elected representatives raise money. Using corporators’ funds, CCTV cameras can be purchased and installed as a part of development work for each ward.u00a0
We can collect a total Rs 3 crore by asking elected MLA’s and MLC’s from the city for their contribution,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II) Makarand Ranade said.u00a0Ranade said Nationalist Congress Party MLC Anil Bhosale, a former PMC member, was the first to give Rs 10 lakh for the cause in his ward (Shivajinagar).
“The process of fund allocation at the election branch at the District Collector’s office has already commenced,” Ranade informed.u00a0Congress corporator Sunny Nimhan from Aundh said that even he was ready to pay the entire amount of Rs 20 lakh that he gets from the civic body for undertaking developmental works in his ward. u00a0“All I need is sustainability and technically successful networking. Ganesh festival is a pride of Pune and many elected representatives will be ready to do this,” Nimhan said.
NCP corporator Shankar Khemse from Paud Road also welcomed the idea. “The scheme is 100 per cent practicable, and we can implement it effectively with the local police. Two lakh is not a big deal for anyone of us, and can be done by keeping aside political identity for the wider perspective of the society. Citizen would be certainly happy to see that corporators and police are coming together for safety and security purposes,” Khemse said.
MNS corporator Rajendra Wagaskar was ready to give Rs 10 lakh not only for his own ward atKoregaon Park, but for the Tadiwala Raod, Boat Club area, Ladkatwadi and Mundhawa as well. u00a0“I want to see the city police commence the work at its earliest,” Wagaskar said.u00a0Pritviraj Sutar, Shiv Sena corporator from Kothrud, welcomed the idea and showed hisu00a0readiness to give Rs 2 lakh for the purpose.
“The police should also look after the maintenance work of the CCTV cams for a year. We are ready to cooperate with police commissioner Gulabrao Pol for this mission,” Sutar said.
‘Not received funds Rajpal promised’
During his tenure, former mayor Mohansingh Rajpal had agreed to donate Rs 10 lakh from mayor’s fund for setting up the first CCTV camera control room at Vishrambaug police station.
Despite installation of 14 high-tech CCTV cameras at Dagdusheth Ganpati, Mandai vegetable market, Laxmi Road and Sambhaji Bridge, the promised amount is yet to be handed over to the rightful person.
“Though Dagdusheth Ganpati Mandal gave its share of Rs 10 lakh, money from mayor’s side is still awaited,” Bharat Junnarkar, the technical consultant who installed the cameras, said.
Former mayor Mohansingh Rajpal said the said amount was handed over to the PMC’s technical department.
“The money was given to the technical department for installing a CCTV camera network in the city,” Rajpal said.u00a0
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