Wasteful expenditure in Pune.. by PCMC/PMC

I was in Pune early this week and was not surprised to see evidence of wasteful expenditure which was 'ignorantly' being celebrated by the PCMC department. It was interesting to see two articles about CCTVs in the same news paper on Sept 11, 2013. 

 One reported the problem of non-working CCTVs which were installed in 2009 and the second article reported PCMC's intent to install another 96 CCTVs in hospitals ! They are unable to get the earlier 120 units working and are trying their hand at another 96 - there is more than meets the eye here - and I mean that Diwali is round the corner and some people must be dying to meet their personal targets

Sept 13, 2013
PCMC to install 96 surveillance cameras at seven civic hospitalsAllocated Rs. 3 crores. Cameras will cover 180 degrees and range of 500 metres. There will be a central control center at the PCMC office. [Dinesh] I assume it will be the same dust laden Swargate control center which is mentioned in the other CCTV fiasco.
Even if they get the Intelligent (hahaha) Traffic System system working do they seriously think that the cameras will be functioning? Is the AMC still valid? The TV screens in the control room have been blank and are (obviously) out of warranty. It is my bet that they will have to go in for another round of purchasing once they are able to lay the fibre to connect the cameras and the control room. What a joke ! You have installed cameras, made a control room and are unable to connect the two - Frukkting story of our government. 

 So as I sat down to write this blog, I discovered more and more of the history of the Intelligent Traffic System which is not working since 2009. And frankly one does not know whether to cry or to laugh !
Sept 11, 2013Intelligent traffic system faces connectivity woesCost more than Rs. 15 cr - Was started in 2009 and had to be made operational before CW games in 2008! (oops!). Has 120 cameras, 70 for critical surveillance.  Control room at Swargate has blank screens. Road digging yet to be done for connectivity ... (what !) as the CCTV and control room is not connected. Last month PMC general body has approved the hiring of a private contractor!

Very intelligent.... everything is so frukkting intelligent about this scam. I am just presenting the links from the TOI website relating to this and the headlines speak for themselves. It is a shame when one sees governments sit 'importantly' on decisions and waste public money. This is a technology project decision and such decisions have to be time bound which PMC has not realized - they have frittered away Rs 15 crores of scarce public money and will be spending another 15 crores or more to get this working. 

Sorry I don't think this ITS will ever get started - no one is going to sanction another 15 crores to buy or update the equipment which has been installed. The vendors and the corrupt people have made their money and gone away . Bharat Mata can go get Frukkt  

Related Headlines from TOI website City's Intelligent Traffic System may change hands
Time and again every government department sheds crocodile tears when talking about budgets and funds but then these very same people blow up money like there's no tomorrow. This was of great concern which was published in the indiawatch.in report  and is the Technology fixation.. quoting this report :


Technology, surprisingly, was not a grave concern
area for our respondents! Its blind acceptance
is what troubled them more. If the world is
deploying some new technology, it is quickly and
blindly included in our system without thought
about the need, capability or localization.
- Indiawatch Top 5 Concerns in Information Security (pg.6)

can we please change!
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