Express News Service By

Here’s a shocker. All the 51 close circuit television cameras (CCTV) cameras under the Cyberabad traffic police department are defunct. The information, furnished in reply to an RTI query, also revealed that 34 CCTV cameras out of the 370 in Hyderabad are not functioning. This fact surfaces , despite the recent terror attack in the city!

The reply, dated 21 March 2013, cites, “power problems, connectivity not established due to paucity of funds” as reasons for the defunct cameras. Asked about the amount actually needed for maintenance of the cameras, the information officer gave an estimation of Rs 51 lakh. Of the 51 cameras, 19 were installed in 2007 and 32 in 2010 but none thereafter.

Compared to Cyberabad, Hyderabad fares much better with 336 CCTV cameras working properly. All the 370 cameras were purchased at a cost of Rs 11.53 crore, and more than `4.5 crore has been spent on the cameras so far. The RTI reply also revealed that funds required for their maintenance were received from the government and the traffic police funds. In contrast, a ‘nil’ was the only reply the Cybderabad traffic police gave when asked how much had been spent on maintenance of cameras.

When contacted, CH Dwarka Tirumala Rao, commissioner of police, Cyberabad, said, “I’ll have to check up on that. But as per my knowledge, all the 47 CCTV cameras installed by the Cyberabad Security Council are in perfect working condition. In fact, with the help of those cameras we were able to nab the boys who tried to kidnap a girl in an auto recently,” he said.