Karnataka cabinet approves Rs 667 crore Nirbhaya Fund plan for safety of women in Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Oct 22: Over 16,000 surveillance cameras and GIS-based crime mapping for predictive policing are among the measures to be put in place in the city under a Rs 667 crore proposal for women safety under the Nirbhaya Fund, approved by the Karnataka Cabinet on Tuesday.
Under the Nirbhaya fund to implement the Safe City Project in Bengaluru, Rs 667 crore Request for Proposal (RFP) has been approved, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said in his briefing on the cabinet decisions.
He said Bengaluru was among the cities chosen by the Centre under the safe city programme to ensure protection of women in public places.
The project proposal would be implemented over a three year period and the Centre will bear 60 per cent of the cost and state 40 per cent, the Minister said.
The project aimed at providing safety for women in Bengaluru 24x7 by installing CCTV cameras, surveillance cameras, panic buttons, up-gradation of dial 100 and GIS mapping of crimes in the city.
The Nirbhaya Fund Framework provides for a non-lapsable corpus fund for safety and security of women to be administered by the Department of Economic Affairs of the Union Ministry of Finance.
The Nirbhaya Fund was announced by the Centre in 2013 after the sensational December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case in Delhi to support the initiatives of the governments and the NGOs working towards safety of women.
Types of cameras to be installed as per the RFP for Bengaluru include Day/Night surveillance cameras- 7,500, fixed cameras-5,000, Pan Tilt Zoom cameras- 1,000 , Automated number plate recognition- 1,000, Facial recognition cameras- 500, Drone based surveillance- 20 and Body worn cameras 1,100.
The project also includes workstations for video feed monitoring and incidence management, Command and Control Centres, data centre, GIS based crime mapping for predictive policing, among others.
Madhuswamy said the state government will send the proposal to the Centre by the end of this month.
The projects on safe city worth Rs 2,919.55 crores under the Nirbhaya Fund for eight major cities of the country aims to make them safer for women.
The cities under the project are - Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.
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Senior citizen duped of Rs 23.5 lakh on threat of digital arrest in Thane district
Thane (PTI): A 68-year-old man was allegedly cheated of Rs 23.5 lakh by cyber fraudsters who threatened him with digital arrest in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Monday.
This is a second such incident reported in the district this week, an official said.
Based on a complaint, the Kalyan police have registered a case under relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, Assistant Inspector Vinod Patil of Mahatma Phule police station said.
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"The complainant alleged that two unidentified persons cheated him of Rs 23.5 lakh by threatening to place him under digital arrest and forced him to transfer money through online transactions between December 8 and 12," Patil said.
'Digital arrest’ is a growing form of cybercrime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement officials or personnel of government agencies and intimidate victims through audio/video calls. They hold the victims hostage and put pressure on them to pay money.
He said that the accused allegedly contacted the victim on WhatsApp video calls and claimed that his bank transactions were suspicious and linked to alleged irregularities.
"The fraudsters told him that he could be placed under digital arrest, but assured him that they would help him avoid legal action if he cooperated," the officer said.
He said that the accused repeatedly threatened the senior citizen and put pressure on him to make multiple online money transfers amounting to Rs 23.5 lakh.
The fraud came to light after the victim narrated the incident to acquaintances and approached the police on realising he had been duped.
"We are analysing bank transaction details, call records and digital evidence to track down the accused," Patil said.
