City Surveillance: 35 of 41 cameras defunct
TNN Bureau. Updated: 7/25/2017 1:40:27 AM
Front Page
Months after DGP's personal displeasure Jammu yet to come under CCTV radar
@SUMIT SHARMA
JAMMU: Despite spike in terror activities and the intelligence agencies regularly warning of possibilities of unpleasant incidents, the winter capital city of Jammu has yet to come under the closed circuit television (CCTV) coverage.
Cameras installed at 35 of the 41 vantage positions have yet to be made operations even four months after Director General of Police Dr SP Vaid expressed his personal displeasure and had left a meeting at the Police Control Room midway when senior officers couldn't give a convincing answer.
The issue of the CCTV cameras has once again come under spotlight ahead of Independence Day celebrations when the security measures are thoroughly reviewed. During a recent review meeting a senior officer pointed to delay of months together in getting the CCTV cameras operational.
Sources said that the inordinate delay in getting the CCTV cameras operational in the winter capital city is mainly because of a row between the Police Headquarters (PHQ) and the service provider over an issue which a senior officer described as 'minor'.
"35 CCTV cameras installed in the winter capital of the state have been rendered non-functional and no efforts are made by the police to make them functional despite repeated complaints regarding the same by several Station House Officers (SHOs) and security agencies, besides looming threats", a senior police officer said.
SSP PCR Joginder Singh when contacted said that he had taken up the issue with the PHQ thrice. "It was recently that I took the service provider with me to the PHQ as he was reluctant to repair the rest of the defunct CCTV cameras defunct", he said and added that the cameras likely to be made operational soon.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer in PHQ when contacted said that the service provider did not fulfil the parameter of the tender and certain lacunae have been listed by the Survey Committee in the CCTV cameras. "PHQ has asked him to fulfil the lacunae and only then get the rest of the amount paid", said he.
He further said that the present CCTV cameras have no space for night vision and nor they have fine resolution