Control priests

The new system includes 24 cameras installed at different points in the temple including the main entrance/exit, cash counting areas and the shrine. CEO of the temple Sanjay Bhagwat monitors the temple campus from a control room on the third floor and also from his Worli home, via the internet. The Dadar police station too has access to this electronic surveillance.

According to Pramod Rao, managing director, Zicom, it is important to pick out the culprits by a facial recognition system. With an available data base of faces of criminals, one can watch out for them.

Raghvendraswami Mutt in Andhra Pradesh’s Mantralayam is another temple that has introduced new security systems. Zicom was the choice of this temple complex too. The system includes eight cameras and two control rooms from where a retired police inspector and two guards monitor all moves of devotees. Chief swami—Sushmendra— joins them in their task.

India’s richest temple –Tirupati at Hyderabad recently installed an CCTV monitoring network provided by the Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL). The CCTV system is monitored round the clock by a team of members of the Tirupati Devasthan Committee.