City’s CCTV cameras on the blink,surveillance hit

So far,around Rs 75 crore have been spent to install these cameras. Plans are afoot to install 1,045 more cameras across Delhi,and the cost to the exchequer would be Rs 68 crore.

Some of these cameras are placed at strategic locations such as Janpath,Sarojini Nagar,Chandni Chowk,Vasant Vihar,etc.

The lapse in the surveillance came to fore when the Delhi Police faced trouble identifying the suspect who dumped the body of Neetu Solanki,packed in a bag,outside the New Delhi railway station. The CCTV camera installed at the spot was not working and police were in the dark both about the identity of the victim and of the accused.

Member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh Jhansi Botcha Lakshmi had raised a question in the Lok Sabha to which the MHA had replied that so far 59 marketplaces and 27 border check posts had been identified by the Delhi Police for installation of the cameras.

The MHA had sanctioned money to install cameras at these points after the 2008 serial bomb blasts in Delhi,in which 21 people were killed and more than 100 were injured. The accused,alleged members of the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen,had told the interrogators that they planted bombs at places where there were no CCTV cameras.

“Besides this,the installation of 46 CCTV cameras in North Campus,Delhi University,is under process and the expenditure involved in the project is Rs 1.19 crore. Installation of CCTV systems in Ashok Vihar market and Rani Nagh market is also under the process and an expenditure of Rs 32.36 lakh has been incurred,” Minister of State,MHA,Mullappally Ramachandran,replied in the Lok Sabha.