Legislators from Sindh have once again expressed the urgent need to initiate the Safe City Project in Karachi
KARACHI: Legislators from Sindh have once again expressed the urgent need to initiate the Safe City Project in Karachi. The plan as it sounds, according to news reports, mainly revolves around better policing of areas and installation of more CCTV cameras in a bid to control street crimes. Further, the CPLC chief suggested that following the London Model, citizens too should pitch money in and contribute towards installation of CCTVs.
The plan may possibly prove to be somewhat helpful in getting the expected outcome. Road accidents due to poor traffic management and system equally and importantly count for making a city ‘unsafe’. Also, what makes the plan less practical is seeking monetary contributions from people who already try to evade taxes and service charges whenever and wherever they can.
A greater part of the effectiveness of the plan still lies in the efficiency of the police force and the implementation of laws. For instance, CCTVs can only provide substantial evidence from a crime scene but tracking down the criminals still remains the responsibility of the police force. Better parameters to evaluate the success of the Safe City Project is to check for crime rate in parts of Punjab and Islamabad, where the plan has already been implemented, rather than London, which absolutely has no comparison to Karachi in terms of crimes and the police force.
Umar Ibtisam
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2017.
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