CCTV cameras bought for CYG ‘vanish’

Cameras worth Rs 1.25 cr were to be given to police; no one knows where they are now

Post the JM Road blasts, the state government floated tenders for installing closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in both Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad areas but the CCTV cameras used during the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in 2008, and supposed to have been transferred to the Pune police, remain a question mark. The police are yet to receive the CCTV cameras and there is no clue as to where the cameras are at present.

The CCTV cameras used for security in the stadium during the Games were supposed to have been transferred to the police after the games, to be used for surveillance across the city.

During the 2008 CYG, the organising committee (OC) had spent around Rs 1.25 crore on installation of CCTV cameras at the venue. According to an audit of the CYG conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in 2010, these cameras were lying unused in a storeroom.

At present, no one knows where the cameras are.

Both the German Bakery blast in 2010 and the JM Road blasts of August last year highlighted the issue of lack of enough CCTV cameras in the city. Post the JM Road blasts, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had announced Rs 30 crore for over 1,000 CCTV cameras.

The audit report states that inspection of documents by auditors of CAG proved that the Pune police commissionerate had in April 2009 approached the department of sports and youth affairs (DSYS), the body that oversees arrangements for the Games, asking for transfer of the cameras for security surveillance in the city. "The DSYS refused on the ground that the CCTV cameras would be used for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in New Delhi. However, the OC never demanded these cameras for the CWG and they had been lying idle in the store, as of March 2011," the report stated.

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