Telangana: 900 CCTVs keep eye on police stations

HYDERABAD: There are 912 CCTVs inside police stations located in Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda commissionerates. The data, provided by the Telangana police, comes in the backdrop of the the state government recently issuing an order forming a committee to oversee the installation and functioning of CCTVs across the state on the direction of Supreme Court.
There are 132 police stations in all the three commissionerates together.Across the state there are 841 police stations and nearly 9,000 cameras have been installed.
The Supreme Court in its order given on December 2, asked all states to give details about the total number of police stations, the status of installation of CCTVs in each police station, the positioning of the CCTV, back-up facility, among other things. As per Supreme Court order, the committee has to be formed with the home secretary, finance secretary and director general of police or inspector general of police rank as well as chairman or member of state women’s commission.
When a senior officer in the home department was contacted by TOI, he confirmed that a committee had been formed. “The state government had issued the order appointing an oversight committee to keep track of CCTVs in the state police stations. The same has been informed to the court. With regard to installation of CCTVs in all the three commissionerates, this was a done a very long time ago. Except for a few places in the districts, in all other police stations CCTVs are there,’’ the officer said, adding that as and when funds are available, the remaining stations will also have CCTVs.
In 2015, a decision was taken by the Telangana government to install CCTVs in all the police stations in the city, as part of massive police station renovation works. As of now, in every police station, cameras are installed outside the compound, at the entry of the building, in the open hall where sub-inspectors are seated and cameras face lock-ups as well to keep an eye on what is happening inside.
However in rural districts, officials said efforts are being made to beef up CCTV presence as there are insufficient cameras to cover all parts of the police stations.