CCTV Project done with contribution received from general public

Our experience with CCTV Project done by coordinating various organization like business community, Gold merchant association, Banks, Police Department etc.

to install High End CCTV City Surveillance project , because a failure. Because the Project never met its target because mainly due to lack of commitment to society (IT is an attitude... Why should I invest for other’s Benefit. )

We done just 3 Project and I am not mentioning the places because it will hurt the peoples who really supported and officials given their valuable after working ours time to do the project. The Project cost estimated was 20, 00,000.00 lakhs and the department of Police called a meeting of business community, residential association, Gold merchant association and nationalized and non nationalized banks and others.

The Police who is directly going to benefited with CCTV City Surveillance, because they can go to interior for patrolling with their limited facility. Most of the time the police struggling to cover entire area because of lack of MEN and vehicles. Once Camera started monitoring in town area, they can easily deeply the force to other areas where cameras are not installed.

They are confident and expect a 100% Support from all people and plan well and draw the picture and present it to the communities whom have different interest.

The first one or two meeting records a 100% or nearing attendance and later it will dropped drastically. And the project will be initiated by police with the scope they can meet the expenses for the project and they look some Venders (Private Companies) because Government agencies not do or not corporate Police Department to do so. KELTRON like companies ask 100% advance for the project and since they do not have own implementation team they will give subcontract after deducting their huge margin. The national banks whose managers attended never try to communicate to their head office and they never believe in spending. But they keep the assurance and they are trying to get approvals. Only few banks give such support and one national bank told to police that they have internal security and they do not required such services and they cannot offer payment. It happened in Aluva. Others never give reply.

The people who assured the support most of the time failed to keep their promise and the fund generation will be a flop. The expected fund is 20, 00,000 and sometime collected amount will be around 6, 00,000.00. The private company who initiated the project may spend nearly 12,00,000.00 and suddenly they found difficulty for liquidity and no money coming from the coordinating team and the approach the officials.

The officials give assurance, they will look into the matter and solve the issue and ask them to do the work. Because of the fear or some other things they may compromise the quality or discontinue the project. The project will be abundant after a 75% work completion and the officers may transfer or they tell them that expected things not happened and they are sorry for it. But still they give hops and give enough motivation by words. The contractor, the money investors and coordinator all are cheated and the news paper people started to writing against it and tell that the contractor collected money and abundant the project. Some news paper blames the honest Police officers, telling that the police collected money and eaten it.

The result is no camera work will be completed. Our experience we lost huge money in such projects. When higher officials asked about the project to junior or the people worked for the project never admit the real things and they tell  false information to higher officials to safer their position. Most of the time the contractor who installed camera will be a victim, and the reports will send to higher people tells that the contractor installed cheap quality produces and never attending the calls from the officials when service required.

The information shared by the officials will give a big trouble to the contractor and he lost all hopes and forced to face cheating cases. Lot of similar incidents happened in Kerala and most of the time the news went whom and innocent people because victim.

The contractor does not have any voice thereafter, because the investigation done by the officials close the chapter just forwarding the report they received from junior officials.

The donation based or coordination based CCTV project not going to happen in Kerala, because the products normally comes with one or two year warranty. No one pay the maintenance cost and it will be burden to the investor. When the contractor visited the Spencer, he tells us he already invested huge amount and he cannot invest further and he not going to benefited anything with the project. He just ignoring the indirect benefits what he enjoyed with the project.

Our experience telling with PPP mode project may solve the issue a greater level. The revenue from various modes like Advertisement, small levies will helps to get funding and a greater level the funds help to maintain the system properly. We proved it in Thodupuzha and the project now nearing one year of completion and 6 months nearing after the officials’ inauguration by Home Minister. All cameras are working properly and we are happy to serve more there.

These commends are my personal opinion and most of the time it will be ignored by officials and start blaming the people who gave their everything for the project. I am not against the system, but the system never going to admit its mistake. It will continue