As many as 96 per cent police stations in Odisha are currently having functional CCTV coverage network while the remaining 4 per cent will be brought under CCTV network by this month-end, the Government informed the Orissa High Court in an affidavit.
The court had earlier directed the government to install CCTV cameras in all police stations and ensure that the devices were functional in wake of the alleged assault on an army officer and sexual harassment of his fiancée in Bhubaneswar’s Bharatpur police station which did not have any CCTV camera.
The affidavit submitted by Dayal Gangwar, Additional director general of police (headquarters), informed the court that the department has been able to complete relocation work of CCTV cameras in 57 police stations and installation of cameras in 52 new police stations by employing the current system integrator in full and they are functioning properly.
Besides, it has integrated 85 per cent police stations out of 645 stations in the Central Monitoring system (CMS) of the State Police Headquarters in Cuttack. The process of integration had got underway after the alleged custodial abuse of an army officer and his fiancée in Bharatpur police station in Bhubaneswar. The Government has also accomplished the task of connecting 36 police districts of Odisha to the Central Monitoring system (CMS) through Video Management System (VMS) and the remaining 2 districts will be connected well within the month of November.
The process of installation of CCTV for 295 police outposts has been taken up by the Government-run Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC), the affidavit concluded.