The Delhi Government on Friday proposed to impose a penalty of Rs 16 crore on the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for its slow pace of installing one lakh forty thousand CCTVs across Delhi. One of the dream projects of Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal was started on group two months ago. Approximately 1000 CCTV cameras are supposed to be fitted in each assembly constituency in Delhi in addition to these schools and colleges will also be fitted taking the total number of around three lakh individual units.
Out of the 1.40 lakh CCTV cameras to be installed by November 22, 2019 across the city, only around 16,000 till date, (which is just 11% of the total cameras to be installed).
"Penalty clause is part of the agreement between the Delhi government and BEL, which was awarded the contract in November last year and after completion of all formalities, the BEL was to begin the installation of CCTVs in February this year and the entire installation work is to be completed by 22nd November," states the statement issued by the office of the CM.
The BEL is under legal obligation to complete the installation of CCTVs within nine months according to its agreement with the Delhi government, and in case it fails to complete the entire installation work within these nine months, it is liable to pay a 10 percent penalty.
Besides, the Public Work Department (PWD) of Delhi government has also issued a show cause notice to the BEL over the slow installation of CCTV cameras all over Delhi.
PWD has also sought a schedule from the BEL on the future course of action of BEL on completion of the process of installation of CCTV cameras. PWD has on numerous occasions, written to BEL and has alerted them time and again to speed up this very important project of women safety and public welfare.
As a first step, since more than two-thirds of the time given to the BEL is already over, the Delhi government proposes to impose a five percent penalty (Rs. 16 crore) of the overall CCTVs installation project cost (Rs 320 crore) to begin with.
The step of invoking the clause of imposition of penalty follows expression of strong displeasure by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the unjustified slow pace of work, said the official.
The government officials said that the CM is committed to complete the installation of CCTV cameras in Delhi on time and he has made it clear that no delay will be tolerated and in case of any default, the company will be blacklisted and complete 10 percent penalty will be imposed.
BEL is liable to pay a penalty in case it fails to fulfil the mandatory condition under the agreement signed with the Delhi government of finishing the work on time. Delhi government will release this amount of Rs 16 crore to the BEL, only if it honours the legal commitment of finishing the installation of 1.40 lakh CCTV cameras by 22nd November this year, said the official.
PWD minister Satyendar Jain and the Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Dev had recently summoned the Chairman and Managing Director of BEL to convey the government's dissatisfaction over the unjustified delay in cameras installation work.
Currently around 400 CCTVs are being installed everyday and in the meeting the BEL CMD had informed that all efforts would be made to improve this number to 1500 CCTVs installation daily, they said.