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Doors & fans under surveillance, CCTV cameras at tehsils in Punjab lose focus

Were installed to check illegal practices
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With the government directing officials to capture CCTV footage of public dealings to check illegal practices during property registration, staff at sub-registrar/joint registrar offices have found a way to hoodwink the system by focusing the cameras on ceiling fans or doors.

720 cameras at 180 offices

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In 2023, as many as 720 CCTV cameras were installed at a cost of Rs 2 crore to provide real-time access of public dealings at 180 offices of sub-registrars

This was witnessed at the sub-registrar offices in Khadoor Sahib, Rajpura, Kharar and Ludhiana. Instead of focusing CCTV cameras on the sub-registrar office, room of the registry clerks and public waiting areas, these were found either pointing towards the ceiling fan or towards the door, said sources. Only the cameras in Patiala, Mansa and Mohali were found focused on the designated spots, said the sources. A week ago. revenue officials were pulled up after CCTV cameras were found non-functional at 177 of the 180 sub-registrar/joint registrar offices across the state.

Though the cameras at 160 locations have become functional, these are not focused on the right places in some offices.

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Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) Anurag Verma on Friday wrote to the Deputy Commissioners to ensure the cameras were functional and focused on the designated areas. A random check by the ACS (Revenue) had found that CCTV cameras installed at 177 sub-registrar/joint registrar offices across the state were not functional. The cameras were found in working order only in the Ropar, Amritsar and Dhuri offices. As many as 720 CCTV cameras were installed in April 2023 at the offices of the sub-registrars.

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