Home Minister R R Patil came under fire in the state Cabinet meeting on Wednesday from his colleagues for the failure to begin implementing the ambitious CCTV project meant to secure Mumbai. A senior Minister in the Cabinet asked Patil to speed up the project and make a presentation before the Cabinet if need be. The CCTV project was first proposed after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and was gathering dust till last July when three blasts rocked Mumbai. A team of Home department and police officers led by Patil had visited London to see the implementation of the vast CCTV network there to learn measures to install a similar system in Mumbai. Though the work order for the 5,000 CCTV cameras was expected to be issued by April,the government is yet to decide on the final tender after there were problems within the lowest bidding consortium. While there are talks of re-tendering for the project,officials from the high power committee headed by the chief secretary remained mum over the subject. On Saturday,NCP president Sharad Pawar said he felt a delay in the project and he had asked Patil to speed up the process.
