HC pulls up Delhi police over failure to install CCTV cameras

Delhi High Court today pulled up Delhi police for its failure to install CCTV cameras at all police station 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 station 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 does not even know whether the cameras in the 108 police station are working and wanted to know the reasons they were not working.
"This court does not want to get the impression that the Delhi Police do not want to install the CCTV cameras," the bench observed.

The court's observation came during the submission made by the police through senior advocate Chetan Chauhan, who was responding to earlier direction to inform the court on the way cops will be installing CCTV at all police station.
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".

"If something happens against a woman in Delhi, it means the woman is responsible. This is what the Delhi police thinks," it said, adding that "It is totally disappointing why the police is not installing cameras as fast as possible".
The court said the central government was "equally responsible" for the delay.
Buying more time in the name of pilot project was just fooling the court, the judge said, adding that the police should learn from foreign countries about technology.
"They are still living in the old era and the crooks are always ahead in technology, so they lag behind," it said.

During the hearing the AAP government said it was willing to set up the CCTVs across the capital and also at the police stations, only if the central government allowed it.
On the issue of additional police personnel for Delhi Police, the court observed that the Centre was "footballing" with the issue.
Initially, a plea was filed in a PIL initiated by the court on its own after the December 16, 2012, sensational gangrape case.