Safe City Projects in doldrums

PESHAWAR: The failure of the authorities to launch the Safe City Project in the provincial capital have prompted the cops to install cameras at checkpoints to improve monitoring.

The solar-powered camera system can be monitored via the internet. “We have introduced our own system by spending a little money to monitor different points of Peshawar,” Capital City Police Officer Mohammad Ijaz Khan told The News.

He said the force introduced a device with a closed-circuit television camera, a flashlight and a police light installed powered by a solar panel. It also had an internet device to connect it with the offices of senior police officers, he added.

“Presently we have made a small number of the devices that will be provided to all the police stations and police posts gradually,” said the Peshawar police chief. CCTV cameras are also being installed at the sensitive buildings and places to improve security.

This has been done after the successive governments and the departments concerned have failed to launch the Safe City Project for Peshawar that was proposed in 2009. Innumerable meetings have been held and millions have been spent on the theoretical work every month for the last 13 years.

A source said the authorities were now planning to launch the phase-1 of the Safe City Project from Hayatabad for which much work has been done. The Safe City Project is an example of how the government and its departments deal with important projects for the security and welfare of the public.

Though the project was supposed to secure Peshawar from terrorist attacks, improve the overall law and order and keep a check on street crimes and improving the treatment of public at checkpoints, it could not be launched due to poor handling of the successive governments as well as wrangling between different government departments.

These departments are interested in gaining powers and control of projects rather than providing security and relief to the public, for which the officials of these departments were recruited and given millions of rupees as salaries.

A source said that former chief minister Pervez Khattak and incumbent CM Mahmood Khan held many meetings regarding the project but none of them could ensure timely completion of the much-needed project for Peshawar.

The Safe City projects were proposed over a decade back for Peshawar, Lahore and Islamabad. The projects were completed in Islamabad and Lahore many years back but nothing has been done in Peshawar.

After the completion of the project in Islamabad and Lahore, authorities in Punjab had announced the same projects for seven other cities in the province recently. A special Safe Cities Authority was also been set up in Punjab in 2015. However, the project could not be started in Peshawar despite facing hundreds of terrorist attacks.