JOIN USRajnath bats for Nirbhaya fund project
Irked by delays in establishing a safety system for women in distress, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at a review meeting on Tuesday called for the expeditious implementation of a project under the Nirbhaya Fund, which requires the use of an integrated Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system.
The Rs 321.69-crore CAD platform was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February this year, but has so far not been put into operation.
After a review meeting of the Centre-State Division of the Home Ministry, Singh said he would personally resolve the impediments. “It was decided that the project should be implemented in an expeditious manner. He (Singh) desires to review it personally with all stakeholders,” a Home Ministry statement said.On the specifics of the system’s functioning, it said: “Distress/emergency alarms a woman generates by pressing a button on her mobile phones/devices would land at the Police Control Room, which would immediately make arrangements to dispatch an emergency van to assist the individual in distress. The proposed system is to be implemented in the identified 114 cities.”
This is the second project cleared under the Rs 1,000-crore Nirbhaya Fund. The first project involved features such as mapping routes of public vehicles, tracking moving vehicles and highlighting violations through visual and text signals.
The key objectives include providing a 24x7 helpline service to women in distress and an efficient and effective response system to attend their calls. It also aims at integrating alarms pertaining to medical and disaster-related emergencies.