Pune: CCTV surveillance left vulnerable as over 1000 cameras out of order in the city
Pune, August 29, 2024: CCTV surveillance in Pune city has been left vulnerable as over 1000 CCTV cameras have been reported to be out of order.
Pune Municipal Corporation had installed over 2900 CCTV cameras across the city following increased criminal activities in the city. These cameras are used by law enforcement agencies to keep a watchful eye on the activities of criminals and notorious gangs operating in the city.
However now it has been reported that 1054 CCTV cameras are non functional exposing vulnerabilities in the surveillance. PMC had installed the cameras and Pune police is using these cameras so currently there is not clarity as to who will bear the cost of repairing these cameras.
These CCTV cameras were installed after the bomb blast in Pune and have thus far acted as deterrent for criminals. Many crimes have been successfully solved because of the footage from these cameras. They were also helpful in identifying culprits in the cases of road accidents.
Over the past few years, corporators installed CCTVs in their wards, after which control was transferred to the local police stations.
Now with 1054 CCTV cameras non functional, it leaves a gap in surveillance and monitoring. This outage becomes more serious keeping in mind the festive season ahead where lot of people are out on the streets till late and many people travel to Pune from other cities and towns to participate in the festivities.
Manisha Shekatkar, Superintending Engineer at the Electricity Department, PMC, stated that after PMC installs a CCTV, control is handed over to the local police. To date, PMC has installed 2,909 CCTVs, with 1,054 currently not working.
