Around 20,000 cameras to be installed at 5,776 polling stations in Sindh

Sindh Cabinet on Saturday decided to install 20000 day and night vision cameras at 5776 polling stations to monitor the entire polling process right from start of the polling to its completion and counting of the votes.
It was decided at a meeting where caretaker Chief Minister Fazal-ur-Rehman presided and all the caretaker cabinet members, Chief Secretary Maj. Azam Suleman (retd), IGP Sindh Amjad Javed Saleemi, Principal Secretary to the CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Information Qazi Shahid Pervez, Secretary GA Zulfiqar Shah, and other concerned secretaries, National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) chairman Brig. Taufiq Ahmed and other officials attended.
The caretaker chief minister (CM) said that the surveillance of all the polling stations was very necessary to make transparent the system of polling station right from the start of the polling process to the end and then counting and sealing of the bags [votes].
"Since the amount [funds] involved in the procurement of the CCTV and other required equipments was very high, therefore I had assigned the task to the chief secretary to negotiate with the NRTC so that the entire project could be commissioned at minimum cost," caretaker CM told the cabinet.
The chief secretary said that NRTC had offered a rate of Rs1 million per polling station cost for the purchase of CCTV camera; hence, installations at 4154 polling stations cost Rs4.154 billion. He said that home department later estimated that the revised cost for purchase of CCTV camera system for 5000 polling stations at Rs1.79 billion. He further said that in consultation with the chief minister he decided to the acquisition of CCTV camera system on rental basis.
"The NRTC came up with a fresh proposal of Rs915 million, excluding GST for 15000 CCTV cameras for 5000 polling stations," Azam Suleman said, adding that he constituted a four-member committee comprising Secretary General Administration (GA) department Zulfikar Shah, Home Secretary Mohammad Haroon, Secretary IT, Director IT and a representative of NRTC.
Briefing the cabinet, Secretary GA Zulfiqar Shah, said that after detailed negotiations with NRTC, the committee was able to bring down the rates from Rs915 million to Rs575 million, including GST. He said that additional concessions were also obtained from the NRTC and number of sensitive polling stations was increased from 5000 to 5776 while number of CCTV cameras in the negotiated price were increased from 15000 to 20,000 cameras and 30 percent of all the CCTV cameras and video recorder would become the property of Sindh government after completion of the task.
NRTC chairman Brig. Taufiq Ahmed through a presentation apprised the cabinet that 20,000 day and night vision of 2MP HD cameras would be installed at 5776 polling stations and each polling station would have the coverage of three CCTV cameras. He said there would be 5776 Video Recorders (VR-4, IU), 5776 Hard Disk Drive each one of 2 TB for recording, 5776 LCD Screen and 5776 One KV UPS each one with 1x200AH Wet Battery.
The cabinet appreciated the efforts of the chief secretary and his team for bringing down the cost of the CCTV project. The cabinet approved the project as the NRTC chairman announced work would begin from July 2 and after installation of all cameras, their accessories and other equipments, including back up system and training of the concerned staff would be handed over to Election Commission of Pakistan on May 23.