Team Herald
PANJIM: Ports Minister Michael Lobo has emphasized the importance of covering the entire coastal belt, frequented by tourists, with CCTV surveillance in a bid to curb crimes, particularly against the tourists. Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of e-challan system at the police headquarters on Friday, Lobo conceded that parts of coastal belt have repeated cases of chain and/or bag snatching incidents.
“Surveillance is the need of the hour in the north and south Goa coastal belt. The project can thereafter be expanded to important cities and towns such as Panjim, Margao, Mapusa and Vasco. Crime detection is not difficult with the surveillance system in place,” he suggested.
Calangute, a popular tourist hub represented by Lobo, presently has around 40 CCTVs installed across 10 locations including Candolim. The minister revealed that Calangute village panchayat has a dedicated space equipped with logistics to record and store the CCTV footage, which also helps the local police to detect any crime-related incidents.
“There are a lot of chain and bag snatching cases wherein tourists are losing their valuable items like passports, foreign exchange, credit cards, debit cards, etc. We now require the entire Calangute belt to be covered under the CCTVs and this can be possible through central funds,” he said. On that note, he conveyed to the government that the project could be undertaken by the IT department under the Centre’s Swadesh Darshan scheme that aims at promoting tourism.
The MLA has also proposed reconstructing the dilapidated Calangute Police Station while suggesting that it could be temporarily shifted to a Portuguese structure. “The infrastructure needs to be in place and Calangute police station is in need of a revamp. The Calangute panchayat has made temporary arrangements to give an old Portuguese structure on lease for two years, until which the GSIDC can complete the construction of the police station at the existing place,” he added.
The panchayat has already moved a proposal with the government even as a consultant has been appointed. The police station, which is estimated to cost Rs 5 crore, Lobo added, could also house a small detention centre.
