CHENNAI: It has been over four years since Rs 425 crore was sanctioned under the Nirbhaya Fund for women safety in Chennai. Today, most of the projects are still in the ‘tender’ stage.
The Greater Chennai Corporation cancelled a tender of Rs 120 crore, supposed to be implemented under the ‘Women’s Safety in Public Places’ scheme under the Nirbhaya Fund.
The tender to install CCTV cameras in 3,500 crime-against-women hotspots was called at the end of 2020, after approval by the Chief Secretary’s apex committee.
Following the change in government, however, the tender was scrapped and new tenders have been floated for other projects under the same scheme.
Of the Rs 425.06 crore, 60 per cent is borne by the Centre and rest by the State. The key stakeholders include Chennai Corporation, Chennai Police, Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department and Metropolitan Transportation Corporation.
The project was to be implemented in three years from 2018, but the Centre extended project duration till March 2022, after request by States.
A total of Rs 173.59 crore is allocated to the city corporation.
“The civic body got details on critical junctions concentrating on crime mapped areas; 3,500 points in the city were shortlisted for installation of surveillance cameras and tenders were floated. There are over 5,000 such critical junctions and the initial plan was to map all places,” said a source.
The corporation has only completed three (amounting Rs 26.6 crore) of the 10 different projects under Nirbhaya Fund, including remote monitoring of streetlights, hiring of project management consultants and experts for Gender Lab who would develop tools for seeking citizen feedback on women safety.
Infrastructure wise, not much has been done and an official admitted that cancellation of the previous tender was the reason for delay in implementation projects.
Asked why the tender was scrapped, the official said, “Even police are installing CCTVs. So, we did not want to do the same thing.”
Projects currently in the pipeline for the Corporation include safety monitoring in corporation schools, menstrual hygiene management, construction of shelter for homeless women with disabilities, and mobile toilets.
A sum of Rs 165.80 crore has been allocated for seven projects to be implemented by the police.
A total of 52 vehicles were procured for women police patrol at a cost of Rs 8.28 crore. Counsellors and social service workers were hired at cost of Rs 0.55 crore.
“Cyber cell for crime against women and GIS mapping is underway,” said a senior police official. Rest of the projects are still in implementation stages.
The MTC was accorded Rs 72.71 crore for installation of surveillance cameras.
The plan is to install three cameras in each of 2,100 buses. The Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department has been allocated `12.96 crore for re-establishment of 181 women helpline.
This TNIE series examines issues faced by women in public spaces & what can be done to address them
