TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: To enhance vigilance at all the five toll booths in both districts, the Goa government has decided to install closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) in addition to those already existing at the border toll booths.
A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary B Vijayan at the Secretariat on Wednesday also decided to deploy armed and unarmed personnel at each of the five toll collection booths to prevent recurrence of Nitesh Rane-like incident which occurred on December 3, 2013.
The Konkan strongman Maharashtra minister Narayan Rane’s son along with his supporters was arrested by Pernem police for attacking and vandalising public property after his car was stopped at Dhargal toll booth and he was asked to pay toll. Toll attendants were also injured in the assault.
The ‘confidential meeting’ also attended by North SP Priyanka Kashyap, South SP Shekhar Prabhudesai and PWD officers was essentially against the backdrop of the Dhargal incident.
Government sources told Herald that PWD has agreed to install two-to-three CCTVs at Dhargal (Pernem), Dodamarg (Bicholim), Keri (Sattari), Mollem (Ponda); all in north Goa and Pollem (Canacona) toll booth plaza, each.
“The existing CCTVs can only record the vehicles’ registration plates. The attack at Dhargal toll naka was not fully recorded because the CCTVs are limited to recording number plates of the vehicles. The additional CCTVs will be installed inside the collection centres as well and at spots from where a wide area could be covered,” disclosed an official.
Two armed and unarmed police personnel will also be stationed at each of the five toll collection booths with sources claiming that this has already been implemented. “We are ensuring all preventive measures to thwart possible attacks,” the source said.
The meeting incidentally coincided with the attack on the toll plazas in at least eight cities in Maharashtra by MNS workers who were protesting and refusing to pay toll. MNS chief Raj Thackeray was detained on Wednesday and later released.
