Bengaluru: In order to avoid a repeat of last year’s incidents during New Year ’s Eve, which made national headlines, the city administration is planning elaborate security measures on M.G. Road, Brigade Road and places where revelers are expected to gather.
The BBMP plans to put up CCTVs, LCD screens and helpline centres for this year’s New Year celebrations at the city hot spots.
At the BBMP council meeting held on Tuesday, City Mayor R. Sampath Raj instructed to install high-resolution cameras and LCD screens and helpline centres at prominent places of the city.
He said, “Last year’s incident was terrifying and that shouldn’t happen again. Rs 10 lakh were granted to all 198 wards to install the cameras at strategic locations under the 4G exemption of Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act.”
The state government recently passed a Karnataka Safety Enforcement Bill for women’s safety, which makes installation of CCTV cameras mandatory at all the commercial, industrial establishments, including schools and hospitals.
“All commercial establishments must install and retain 30 days of recordings, failing which their trade licence will be cancelled,” Mayor added.
Sweeping machines
In the last council meeting, BJP MLA C.N. Ashwathnarayan had alleged that there was inconsistency in the procurement of sweeping machine. Addressing the issue, BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said, “The first pre-bid meeting which was held on October 30, 2014 was for the self-propelled tender, but it was cancelled due to cost issues. Later, on February 2, 2016, the second tender was called for truck mounted machine which was approved by the standing committee on July 19, 2016 and was brought to notice of Palake sabha.”
House numbers
He also said that BBMP is coming out with the new digital number scheme to solve the issue of houses having more than one door number. This scheme comes up with a nine-digit alphanumeric number which allows houses to have a unique ID, helps in navigation and in tax related issues.
The corporators, however, complained about lack of information regarding the new master plan, penalising of poor people by BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) as well as the problems related with pro-rota charges and occupancy certificate.
