Government approves Rs 2,919 crore projects under Nirbhaya fund to create 8 safe cities

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has approved projects worth Rs 2,919 crore under Nirbhaya Fund for creating eight safe cities. They are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Lucknow.

Key Facts

The projects for safe cities will have special focus on women safety in public spaces and quick response systems to create deterrence against crime. Plans for safe cities were prepared in coordination with municipal corporations and police commissionerates of these cities.
Delhi: Project worth Rs 663 crore was approved to enhance safety of public places like roads, schools and metro stations. It includes use of latest technology such as video monitoring, facial recognition analytics, and person tracking systems. It will also provide dedicated women safety patrol vans equipped with GPS tracking and on-board video feed sharing to the existing fleet of the Delhi Police.
Mumbai: Project worth Rs 252 crore was sanctioned to enable GIS mapping of criminal hotspots, video surveillance, training of investigating officers and quick response police teams. It will also strengthen Police Didi programme wherein female police officers interact with women living in slums.
Chennai: It will receive Rs 425 crore for project that will create safe-zone clusters at hot crime zones, security in public transport, GIS-based crime mapping, capacity building of police authorities as well as a helpdesk service for women. Moreover, cyber-crime and legal assistance compensation lab will also be set up.
Ahmedabad: Rs 253 crore was approved for ABHAYAM Vans for quick response to women in distress, ‘She Teams’ of women for surveillance and One Stop Crisis Centres. The project also envisages redevelopment of Sabarmati River Front to make it more womenfriendly.
Kolkata: It will get Rs 181.32 crore for various schemes, including for strengthening nine women police stations. Bengaluru: It will get Rs 667 crore for projects which will be utilised for setting up women police outposts and creation of safety islands.

Nirbhaya Fund

The fund is created by Ministry of Finance in 2013. It dedicated for implementation of initiatives aimed at enhancing the safety and security for women in the country. It is a non-lapsable corpus fund. It is being monitored by Empowered Committee of Officers under Secretary of Women and Child Development Ministry. It is an inter-ministerial committee appraises and recommends various projects (schemes) proposed by different ministries to be funded from Nirbhaya Fund. Between 2013 and 2017, the corpus of Nirbhaya Fund has grown to Rs 3,100 crore.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2018