After car park bomb in May,six meetings and nothing else

On the blink: 32 or 49? CCTV cameras caught between police,PWD.

Authorities held a meeting nearly every fortnight on strengthening security at the Delhi High Court following the low intensity blast outside the complex this May but not much moved as a result.

No one was hurt when a crude bomb attached to a car parked outside the court exploded on May 25 but it raised enough safety worries to put the spotlight on securing the complex. And when Wednesdays blast far more lethal happened,at least 150 police and paramilitary personnel were guarding the complex then,besides six Police Control Room vans positioned nearby.

The Delhi Police and civic agencies have had at least six meetings with High Court judges and lawyers since the May blast,said Secretary of the Delhi High Court Bar Association D K Sharma.

The need to install close-circuit cameras in the complex,a key security requirement that couldnt be completed despite a proposal being moved nearly three years ago,was stressed again after the May blast. But the 49 cameras proposed to be put up are still in the pipeline,a delay Delhi Police officials today blamed on the Public Works Departments (PWD) inefficiency. We even reminded PWD they needed to float tenders. It remains a key problem area, a senior police official said.

But PWD officials said the delay in procuring cameras was partly due to Delhi Police officials who suddenly changed purchase requirements this year. After the May blasts,the police told us that 32 cameras,as mentioned in the original proposal,would not be enough and that we would now have to install 49. We had already floated tenders in March which had to be recalled, a PWD official said.

The official said tenders were floated again this June and are being scrutinised now. The process will be finalised in two to three weeks, the official said.

But M K Meena,Joint Commissioner of Police (Security),said they had sent details about camera requirements long back. Bar Associations Sharma said that after the May blast,security agencies agreed to proposals like installing cameras outside the High Court,providing high-level electronic gadgets like scanners and deploying police personnel in plainclothes to gather local intelligence. While all proposals were approved on paper,nothing much was implemented, Sharma said.

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Additional Solicitor General and President of the High Court Bar Association A S Chandhiok told The Indian Express that security could have been more stringent. I will only blame the institution and the system that we have created for ourselves. I find myself responsible to the extent that I could not persuade the authorities to install CCTVs soon and make them understand the urgency, said Chandhiok.

Asked what finally changed since the attack on May 25,he said that more security personnel in plainclothes had been put on the job besides enhancing the security during the night. The personnel have also been provided with better gadgets and arms following meetings between the Bench and the Bar from the court and security agencies, he said.