Team Herald
MARGAO: Even as most of the existing CCTV cameras installed by the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) are non-functional, the civic body is set to discuss a new proposal for installing CCTV systems at 38 key locations across the town. The initiative, which will be addressed in the council’s upcoming ordinary meeting, aims to fund the project through the MPLAD scheme or other government resources.
Despite this fresh push, frustration among residents and some council members remains high due to past failures in
maintaining previously installed CCTV cameras. Citizens argue that without a proper maintenance plan, the new systems risk falling into disrepair like the earlier ones.
Records show that in November 2013, the MMC installed several CCTV cameras under the MPLAD scheme with a project cost of Rs 18 lakh. However, the cameras, which were installed in phases, are now largely defunct and deemed irreparable. In 2018, Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai also secured Rs four crore under the MPLAD scheme to install 365 high-end and mid-range cameras at 112 locations across Fatorda, but this project was never realised.
Efforts to revive the CCTV initiative continued in May 2023, when the MMC received a recommendation from former Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar to install CCTV cameras at 38 locations in Margao. Unfortunately, the proposal was halted after the tenure of the recommending MP
ended before the project could progress.
As the MMC deliberates on moving forward with this initiative once again, residents’ express scepticism. “It’s now 2024, and after news about CCTV installations worth Rs 250 crore elsewhere, the MMC is again proposing new cameras at 38 locations in Margao,” said Savio Coutinho, former Margao Chairperson. He recalled how, back in 2012, the then South Goa Collector N.D. Agarwal, along with local MLAs, had presented a demo of the surveillance plan, envisioning CCTV coverage across arterial roads.
“It was initially announced that a three-km stretch from Holy Spirit Church to Margao Municipal square would be covered as a pilot project,” Coutinho noted. “But despite some 20 cameras being installed, poor maintenance left them non-functional within no time.”
“The Collector’s office never officially handed over the installations to the MMC. Imagine, the absence of a sheet of paper resulting in the loss of nearly Rs 25 lakh of public funds—a significant sum now, but even more a decade ago.”