THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, DELHI
Lt. Governor, Delhi Sh. Anil Baijal chairs law and order meeting, reviews current status of CCTVs in Delhi, their maintenance and future plans.
Inter-agency group to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure for installation, maintenance and operation of CCTVs to be set up
Operation & Maintenance of CCTVs extremely important, poor maintenance must be checked by deterrent liability clauses : LG
Hon’ble Lt. Governor, Delhi Sh. Anil Baijal chaired a law & order meeting of Delhi Police today and reviewed operational and functional aspects of CCTVs in Delhi, their utilization/maintenance/feedback, progress in installation and future plans . The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Home), GNCTD, Commissioner of Police, Delhi, GNCTD, Pr. Secretary (UD), GNCTD, Chairman, NDMC, Commissioner of North MCD and East MCD, Commissioner (Transport), GNCTD, Spl. CPs and Jt. CPs and officers of Raj Niwas.
Delhi Police made a detailed presentation in this regard. Hon’ble Lt. Governor was informed about the identified places for installation of CCTVs cameras especially in view of directions of Hon’ble High Court. At present 4067 CCTVs are installed at 87 different sites by Delhi Police, while proposal for installation of 1380 cameras is under active consideration by MHA.
Hon’ble LG was informed that Master Control Stations are installed in concerned police stations to monitor the CCTV system. Also more than two lakh cameras have been installed with public participation in Delhi (RWAs, Market associations etc) in addition to about 11000 cameras that have been installed by other agencies like DMRC, NDMC, Railways and DIAL at different locations.
It was also informed that at 29 sites, Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras have been put in place which send automatic alerts to the control room.
It was also discussed that the main purpose of CCTVs is crime prevention and safety. If CCTV cameras are installed by different agencies without coordination with police in a haphazard manner, the whole purpose of installation of CCTVs would be defeated. A standard protocol for sharing of video feed with the police has to be evolved. Locations which are sensitive, crime prone, have to be identified in coordination with Police. It has to be ensured that there is no overlapping of cameras at the same location so that scarce government resources are not wasted. There are also issues of privacy that have to be addressed.
Therefore, Hon’ble Lt. Governor directed to form an inter-agency group to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) within the legal framework to address the issues of uniformity in installation as well as issues of privacy, security, feed-sharing, integration & optimum utilization.
Hon’ble Lt. Governor stated that improving connectivity, better management of networks and optimum use of artificial intelligence is the need of the hour so as to reap maximum benefits from the installation of CCTVs.
Finally, Hon’ble Lt. Governor stressed upon effective operation and maintenance of CCTVs, and deterrent penalty in case of any laxity on this count.