Delhi High Court has pulled up Delhi police for its failure to install CCTV cameras at all police stations in the national capital, despite having taken the initiative 13 years ago. The court also termed the police’s response in the matter as “a complete eyewash” and said the force did not even know whether the cameras it has installed so far were working.
“In so far as CCTV cameras are concerned, the time taken by the Delhi Police is not encouraging. They have installed CCTV cameras at 108 police stations out of 190 in 2002-2004. “That was 13 years ago. This is surprising that after expiry of 13 years, the Delhi Police wants to carry out a pilot project (PP) without any time schedule,” a bench of Justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said.
It also said the police do not even know whether the cameras in the 108 police stations are working and wanted to know the reasons why they were not working. The court’s observation came during the submission made by the police through senior advocate Chetan Chauhan, who was responding to an earlier direction to inform the court on the way they will be installing CCTVs at all police stations. Terming the police’s reply as a “complete eye wash”, the court observed that the police seems to be “not interested in installing CCTV as they think that Delhi is safe”.
The court said the central government was “equally responsible” for the delay. Buying more time in the name of a pilot project was just fooling the court, the judge said, adding that the police should learn from foreign countries about technology.
