Police turn a blind eye to out-of-order CCTVs in Pune

The 14 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras that were installed at the 10 most-crowded locations in the city in August last year have been non-functional for the past four months now as the Internet network charges for this service have not yet been paid to the service provider, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

The police said that they could not hold anyone responsible for paying the bills because it was a private agency sponsored project.

These CCTV cameras were installed at a cost of Rs20 lakh for additional security during Ganeshotsav after the German Bakery bomb blast and an attempt to plant a bomb at Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati temple in 2010.

The cameras were installed after the Pune police commissioner had a meeting with Ganesh mandals last year. In the meeting, it was decided that all the mandals should bear the expenditure for installing these cameras for the safety of mandals and citizens. Makarand Ranade, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) zone I, said, “We got private agencies to sponsor the project, so we cannot say who is responsible for paying the bills.”

The Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Trust had promised to bear half the cost of the project, ie, Rs10 lakh and have paid it too.

A trustee, Ashok Godse, said, “We paid the money, but no one is ready to pay the Internet bill and, thus, the entire project is going down the drain. If the officials had planned everything properly, it would have not come to this. During the planning, there was no provision made for the money required to pay the service provider.”

Former mayor Mohansingh Rajpal had promised to pay the remaining Rs10 lakh for installation, but it was never paid.

The money was paid by Junnarkar Technologies that installed the cameras.

The 14 Victor Company of Japan (JVC) cameras functioned through the BSNL telephone network. The camera output was transmitted and recorded at Vishrambaug police station CCTV control room.

The cameras were connected using the managed leased line network system. Power supply was drawn from the nearest commercial establishment, while the output was transmitted to the police control room via telephone network. The cameras have a recording capacity of 60 days.