CCTV cameras at police stations lying defunct

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 19

Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras installed at the city police stations have been lying defunct for a long time, but no action has been taken by the police department or police station head to get it functional.

This lapse has raised a serious question over the police department that why CCTV cameras at police stations were not made functional despite the fact that every day the police department is getting complaints of illegal detentions from people against police station officials.

Even in February earlier this year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court also directed the Finance Department of Punjab government to release around Rs 6.59 crore for purchasing 1,700 CCTV cameras to be installed in 406 police stations of the state, but here the condition is that cameras are installed but they are lying defunct due to lack of maintenance and monitoring.

The HC had passed these orders while hearing an ongoing matter related to illegal detention of persons in the police custody and related issues.

It is pertinent to mention that even various CCTV cameras installed by the police at important intersections in the city have also been lying defunct.

SSP Naveen Singla admitted that CCTV cameras at police stations were not working and claimed that we were working on a project. By September more cameras would soon be installed in the city and these cameras at police stations would also be made functional.

Even a few days ago, a family of Katar Singh Wala village had raised allegations against an official of the Kotshamir police post for keeping their minor girl and her parents in illegal custody at night. If CCTV cameras would have been installed or are in working condition at the station then it would have been clear by seeing footage that whether they were kept illegally or not at police station.

Diljit Singh, a city resident, questioned as to why the police installed these cameras if they were not of any use? He said it was the question of the security of residents and the police should make these cameras functional at the police stations.

Another resident Gurmeet Singh said it seemed that this was a deliberate attempt of police officials, who didn’t want to show their style of working at the police stations.