Safe city project sanctioned in 8 cities by Centre, next batch not yet decided

New Delhi [India], July 27 (ANI): As part of several initiatives for womens' safety, Safe City Projects have been sanctioned in eight cities, the Ministry of Home Affairs told the Parliament on Tuesday.

The cities where the project has been sanctioned by the Centre under the Nirbhaya Fund scheme are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai.

Cities for the next batch of the projects, however, have not been decided.

While replying to a query, Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra said that the project has been sanctioned by the Union Home Ministry, despite 'Police' and 'Public Order' being state subjects.

"Safe City Projects have been sanctioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs as part of several initiatives for the safety of women by the Central government despite 'Police' and 'Public order' being state subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, and the responsibilities to maintain law and order, protection of life and property of the citizens including crime against women are with the respective state governments," the Mishra said.

He added that these projects involve the identification of hot spots for crimes against women and deployment of various components including infrastructure, technology adoption, and capacity building in the community through awareness programmes.

He later informed that the project implementation is regularly reviewed by the state level Apex Committee and clarified that specific details are not maintained in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Asked about the next batch of cities under this project, the Minister said the criteria for selection of the next batch of cities have not been decided and new projects would be dependent on demand assessment and project feasibility.

Mishra further said that Safe City project guidelines provide the States and UTs to converge with other ongoing projects or schemes, including Smart City Project. (ANI)