Visakhapatnam lacks CCTV surveillance

Visakhapatnam: The port city is yet to get smart when it comes to the installation of CCTV cameras in public places for safety and security reasons. Covering public places under the CCTV camera surveillance remains a big challenge for the administration though it has been made a must under the AP Public Safety (Measures) Enforcement Act-2013.

About 70 per cent of 1,000 establishments which need to have surveillance of CCTV cameras are yet to comply with the rule, according to cops.

Lack of efforts by concerned authorities to enforce the rule and lack of awareness among public about its importance are attributed to the poor implementation.

The management of commercial establishments, educational institutions, sports complexes, banks, religious places, bus stations, cinema theatres, hotels, industrial units, lodges, guest houses among others had been asked to fix CCTV cameras and make arrangement to store video footage to a minimum of 30 days and make it available for inspection as and when required.

At a recent meeting with representative of various establishments, DCP (crime) T. Ravi Kumar Murthy had blamed the managements of the establishments for taking the surveillance rule casually and sought their active cooperation.

At many establishments, the installed CCTV cameras are not working properly or have not been upgraded to the new versions available in market.

When asked, some of the hotel managers in the city admitted that the CCTV cameras are given least priority and are not maintained properly. They suggested that the police should hold awareness campaigns to educate the public and other stakeholders about the importance of CCTV, their maintenance procedure and new technologies.

Cops claimed that the CCTV cameras installed at bank ATMs run by private players are of better quality than the ones installed by the government. Big commercial establishments are only maintaining the surveillance camera system properly.