KUCHING, Dec 29: Political secretary to the Premier Tan Kai has clarified that the closed-circuit television (CCTV) installed at the mini roundabout of Jalan Arang-Jalan Dogan was not part of the Kuching Smart City project’s experimental setup.
He said the existing CCTV pole was a collaboration project by the local assemblyman and the police.
“However, it can be incorporated into the Kuching Smart City plan if the technical aspect allows in the future.
“This CCTV pole has the potential to become one of the revenue sources for leasing to other telecommunications providers in the 5G enabled network area in the near future,” he explained in a statement today.
Tan was responding to the issue of inoperative CCTVs at the Jalan Arang-Jalan Dogan site brought up by Michael Kong, special assistant to Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
Kong has urged the Sarawak government to look into the existing CCTV programme, claiming that majority of them were not operational, before embarking on a large-scale project of installing 800 CCTVs in 200 locations in Greater Kuching involving the jurisdictions of four local councils in the southern region.
As for the cost of CCTV installation which Kong claimed was at RM33,000 per CCTV, Tan pointed out that the cost not only covered the CCTV and pole, but also that of network connectivity and Sarawak Integrated Operations Centre (SIOC) system.
“Hence, Michael Kong’s one-sided questioning without understanding the actual fact is premature and misleading,” he said.
Instead of complaining without real actions, Tan added that Chong, as the elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Stampin, should help fight for more federal funding from Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and other agencies to jointly develop Stampin constituency into a safe and secure area.
Meanwhile, Deputy Premier and Batu Kawah assemblyman Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian has recently disclosed that 18 poles with 54 CCTVs will be installed in Batu Kawah.
The project in collaboration with Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) was part of the Sarawak government’s digitalisation initiative to strengthen and improve the security of public places as well as to protect the safety of the people. — DayakDaily
